Lost Enroute to Fate
by Feline Mischief
Summary: Written by Tsubasa Kya and feathergriffin. The jewel's finished, Kagome's back in her time, and she is having the absolutely weirdest birthday ever! Not to mention everything that follows. YYHInu
1. Chapter 1

Hello! This is feathergriffin, and Tsubasa is not available at the moment. She is currently having difficulties with the internet, so she asked me to go ahead and post this. Anyways, for any explanations as to why and how we wrote this, check out our profile! I promise, it's not boring, and even has the added benefit of being somewhat informative! We hope you enjoy the story, and are looking forward to the response to our combined efforts. Enjoy!

_By Tsubasa Kya and feathergriffin_

**Lost Enroute to Fate**

_**Chapter 1**_

Kagome woke with a groan, her body sore in places she'd rather not mention and her stomach growling at her. It had been three whole days since she, Inuyasha, and the others had completed the jewel and while the well did let her go through it still, she found absolutely no urge to torment herself.

After all, Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku had all promised that when she returned, she would be picking up her training again... something she didn't fancy all that much. She knew she'd much rather sit around and be lazy after suffering more than enough excitement for one teenage girl's life. Besides, she had to catch up on her school work if she was going to graduate.

Besides, what was the point? It wasn't like there were any demons around in this time, were there? The Soul Piper was harmless--unless you decided do go and try and rescue one of the angry souls from hell--and the Noh mask was destroyed. There couldn't be that many more demons, right?

She barely stopped to consider the fact that humans could be equally vicious and some of them desired the jewel's power as well. She could run away from humans easier, so pretending there weren't evil humans was an easier task.

Inuyasha sat on the well on the other side. "She's skipping practice, I know it!" he muttered angrily under his breath. He was still upset that Miroku and Sango had talked him into letting Kagome go back in the first place as soon as the jewel was complete. Her place was training; she could get hurt! He'd smelled demons on the other side of the well, though never told her for fear of her panicking.

"I'm sure she's just doing school work," Miroku said. Miroku thought a perverted image of Kagome skipping around with zero-to-no clothes on—and in the rain—and decided the image was much better than her sitting around studying for this or that 'egg-zam'. Not wanting to get slapped by Sango, however, he kept the image secret and relished in it.

"She did skip a lot of this school to be here, from what she's said, and it seems to be something important in her era," Sango added. She looked at Miroku with suspicion. The look in his eyes was the same one he got just before rubbing some poor, unsuspecting village girl's bottom and asking them to bear his children. Even though the curse on his hand was gone, his 'wandering hands curse' was intact, and being suspicious was far safer than trusting the lecherous monk.

"School is more important then being able to keep your skin attached?" Inuyasha asked sarcastically. He couldn't believe he was hearing what they were saying. How… distinctively like them to support Kagome and not him.

"Yes." Sango said with a nod. "Kagome explained to me that her 'egg-zam' things are the only demons her world has, and that she needed to slay them all with perfect marks. So, if you think about it, she is training after all."

Inuyasha still looked skeptical as he looked down into the murky depths of the well.

Kagome was lazily falling back to sleep, her eyelids fluttering closed. She remembered sleepily, "It's my birthday," but ignored that fact. Kagome drowsily peeked at the clock, which told her it was 11:23 AM. "Way too early to wake up..." It only took one day to chuck away Inuyasha's wake-up-at-six-in-the-morning regime.

A soft knock on her door made her aware of someone's desire to come inside. She closed her eyes, prepared to pretend she was unconscious until at least 5:00 PM.

"Kagome?" her mother called softly and the door creaked open. "Oh, she's still sleeping..." There was a happy sigh; her mother was glad she was back and that for the most part her life would remain steady here in the modern era.

Sure, Kagome did say that she would probably go visit the past on Sundays, so she could be with her friends on the other side, but Monday through Saturday she belonged to what her mother preferred to term "the real world". And even those visitations wouldn't last forever; Ai was sure of it.

Her mother crossed the room to Kagome's desk and there was a quiet thunk sound. "I'll just set Cousin Shuichi's birthday present for her right here and she can find it when she wakes up."

"You know, mama," Kagome muttered, unable to keep silent any longer since her dream world had escaped her. "Talking to yourself is seen as a sign of madness..."

Mama chuckled. "Well, I think I must be mad, letting your brother take those kendo classes. Good to see you wake up."

A couple of minutes later in the feudal era, Miroku and Sango had left Inuyasha to sulk by the well. He was actually doing pretty well, considering that he hadn't leap through the well yet. It might have not been Sunday, but Kagome had neglected to tell Inuyasha that she was only coming on Sundays now.

"That's it! She only gets ten more minutes!" Inuyasha said, and held the wrist watch she had given him in hopes that he wouldn't be so impatient. It had been a nice thought. Sadly, it hadn't worked that well yet. Now he knew exactly how many minutes late she was in any particular instance, something that was a common occurrence.

Kagome sat up, her nightgown managing to rise up farther than she would have liked if she were to take notice of it.

Her mother said, "Happy birthday, Kagome. Cousin Shuichi mailed this for you..." she smiled. "It's so nice to have you back..." Tears were welling in the older woman's eyes. "Oh, dear, now I'm tearing up. I'd best get to making your cake, hm?" She hastily left the room, brushing her tears away.

Too curious for her own good, Kagome crossed the room, her nightgown falling back to the proper place by her knees. She picked up the bulky package sent by her cousin. "I wonder what it is..." she whispered and tore away the standard shipping package wrap. It was a package of healing potions and ingredients. She felt a suddenly angry vein throbbing in her temple; "Oh... how thoughtful..."

She reached for the letter that lay on top.

_Dear Kagome,_

_Grandfather has told me about all the troubles you've been having with various illnesses, and since I know most of them are more common to the elderly, I've sent some general health supplements for you, and some more specialized ones for grandfather as he must be getting a bit senile. All the bottles are clearly labeled, and I have a list of instructions for everything. I also included some scented oil to use in a bath, which include rose, lavender, and sakura for a few different choices. I hope you recover soon, and look forward to seeing you._

_Your cousin,_

_Shuichi_

_PS I really do hope to see you. It has been too many years since we have gotten a chance to see each other._

"Geez, O-jii-san!" Kagome sighed. "You can't even tell our own family the truth? Sure, Shuichi's related through papa... but..." She trailed off and then laughed at the personal statement. "Too adorable!" A grin crossed her face. "I'll just tell O-jii-san these are vitamin supplements so he'll take them." She looked at the bottles, and smiled. The general vitamin type things were all well and good, but bath oils! That was totally awesome.

She'd heard a lot about Shuichi lately that he was going to school for medicines and herbs and such. She knew a little about those things, but not much and she trusted her cousin enough that he wouldn't kill their grandfather.

'How long has it been since I've seen Shuichi?' She thought as she set the letter down and peeled off her nightgown, changing into the clothes she would wear that day. As usual it was a skirt; always a skirt when she was in her era, that way Inuyasha couldn't make her train if he happened to come without blushing furiously.

She wore a peach tank top and a pink skirt; she normally wasn't fond of the pink color but decided since it was her birthday she would make an exception. 'I think I'll see if Souta wants to go shopping with me. I bet he will, if I talk about the antique swords shop he likes to frequent...' An evil little smile crossed her face. 'Then I can have him carry my bags...'

Meanwhile, Inuyasha self-righteously looked at the wrist watch he held in his hand. "Ten minutes!" he said, and jumped in. In the bushes, Miroku, Sango, and Shippou shook their heads.

"Doomed," they muttered in unison.

"Souta!" Kagome called through the house, her voice echoing like a ringing tone. She thought she heard a yelled response when she felt a familiar presence in the well. She rushed down the stairs to the door, threw on a pair of sandals, and raced for the shrine stairs. 'He'll go away if I'm not here... He'll go away; he'll just go away...' She somehow doubted that, but it was worth a try. She was sore at the lost opportunity to have Souta come along, but didn't really care as she pulled her hair into a messy ponytail using the tie band usually kept on her wrist.

As long as she could get away from Inuyasha and training, she was happy.

"What sis?" Souta yelled back.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled from the well house.

But too late, Kagome was already to the exit at the bottom of the shrine steps, well on her way away. If she could lose herself in a crowd, her scent MIGHT be lost, although Inuyasha had an uncanny ability to find her. Did she wear some sort of homing beacon?

"Inuyasha?" Souta asked as he came out of the house, "Did you see where Kagome went?"

Inuyasha ignored Souta, holding his nose up in the air and sniffing. He leapt out of the shrine, continuing to follow Kagome's scent. Soon, it was lost in crowds. Inuyasha stopped on top of a building, and got out a special object. A long time ago, he had tricked Kaede into giving him an enchanted object that would allow him to find Kagome where ever she was. Luckily, she had believed his story that he was worried about all the times that Kagome was kidnapped or managed to get herself lost. She bought it.

Meanwhile, Souta looked at the empty courtyard. "What is it with people not answering me today?" he asked. Then he shook his head and went back into the house to play video games. He blamed his laziness on Kagome. She was a bad example.

**End Chapter One**

Are we stopping it there? So soon? Yup. Don't worry, we are a bit ahead, so we will be able to update whenever we feel like it. We'll see what happens. Anyways, we'd love to hear from you, so drop up as line (or two, or three, or maybe even more!)

PS I think I'll let Tsubasa write the next introduction and ending, just to be fair. Bye!


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: Lost Enroute to Fate  
**Author: Feline Mischief  
_Disclaimer__: I get the joy of posting this chapter. So once I can set down my addictive Dr Pepper and Feather and I am satisfied with the edits for this chapter, we can successfully tell you we do not own "Inuyasha" or "Yu Yu Hakusho" yet and post._

Chapter two

Kagome was ambushed in the mall just as she remembered she hadn't grabbed any of her money. Eri, Ayumi, and Yuka, who had apparently been lurking nearby, called, "Kagome!" They were with another girl who Kagome barely recognized.

"Keiko?" Kagome asked, surprised to see the girl. The last time she'd seen Keiko had been kindergarten, but the girl had then moved to the other side of Tokyo, the same area that Kagome's cousin lived in, and visit time wasn't all that easy to get a hold of.

"Kagome, it is good to see you! The girls were just reminding me it's your birthday!" Keiko chirped.

"Oh," Kagome blushed, more embarrassed now that she'd forgotten to grab her money. "Yeah, I guess it is." Why was a birthday so embarrassing? Simply put, because the girls were insane, especially on birthdays. Did Keiko grow the same way as them? Kagome might have if it weren't for the influence of life-or-death situations almost every day.

"It's Treat-Kagome day!" Eri squealed and the other two girls joined in chanting "Treat Kagome" over and over.

Keiko giggled. "Very enthusiastic!" she said. "How are you feeling, Kagome? Are you up to a walk around the mall?"

'If I wasn't, I wouldn't be here now,' Kagome thought but smiled anyway. "I'm feeling great..."

"Kagome," Eri stated firmly, holding up a hand in 'halt'. "Remember, if you so much as take out your money today, you have to kiss the next boy you see!"

Kagome blushed furiously at that. "Guys, aren't we a little old for this game?"

"So, what's this about your rude boyfriend?" Kieko, seeing her embarrassment, changed the subject. Sadly, it was too an even more uncomfortable one.

Kagome groaned to herself. 'Why did I ever bring that up? Why?' "I was just really mad at him that day. Anyways, we're not going out anymore. We live in two different worlds," Kagome said. Inwardly, Kagome giggled. 'They have no idea.'

"Too bad," Ayumi said wistfully.

"What's this about you dating the biggest punk on your side of the town?" Kagome asked, deciding to be a good person and share the embarrassment around.

Eri and Yuka gasped, "Keiko! That's right! You're dating that Urameshi guy! What's it like to kiss him?"

"Is he cute?" Ayumi asked, her attention quickly caught.

Kieko immediately turned red. Keiko said, "Uh, why the attention? Weren't we talking about Kagome here?"

"She doesn't have a boyfriend anymore!" Eri exclaimed.

"Thanks Eri," Kagome said wryly.

Keiko said, "But, but I don't want to talk about me!"

Kagome said, "I heard about him in a letter from my cousin once. Urameshi once beat up a teacher... is that true?"

"Who's your cousin?" Keiko asked.

"Shuichi Minamino," Kagome said.

Keiko choked. "K—Minamino-san?" she asked, stumbling only slightly.

The girls started walking along, each of them window browsing as they chatted. "I once saw Minamino-san," Eri stated impressively.

"What's wrong with my cousin?" Kagome asked defensively. "He's always been sweet to me in every letter he's sent. Granted I haven't seen him in several years but..."

The other girls stopped, and looked at each other.

Keiko said, "Oh, nothing!" she assured Kagome... "Nothing's wrong with him... He's just... well, I guess anti-social would describe him. Girls love him, but he's never interested! It's weird!"

Though they didn't notice it, they were standing in front of the window display of Victoria's Secret. "Does he have to like them?" Kagome said defensively. "He's probably just waiting for the right guy to come along."

"Guy?" The other girls looked at each other.

Keiko frowned, "Well, when hundreds of girls want to date him, he could at least pick one and be done with it. Instead, he just walks around school like we're beneath his imperialness!"

"I'm sorry. I guess I was confusing him with me," Kagome said.

"I didn't even notice the mix up," Keiko muttered honestly, though she went mostly unheard.

The other girls looked at Kagome sympathetically.

"There's always Hojou," Yuka said.

Eri said, "Kagome, I'm sure someone's there for you..."

Ayumi shook her head sadly, "No, remember he was going out with Nitshoku now?"

"Oh, sorry, Kagome. We forgot to tell you about that," Yuka said, looking apologetic.

Keiko smiled suddenly, "I know a few guys in my district who might like you! Kuwabara-san is a friend of Minamino-san and Yusuke's!"

Kagome blushed, "I don't need you guys to set me up!"

"Don't think of it as setting you up! We're just trying to help you meet the right guy!" Eri said.

"I have an idea!" Ayumi suddenly said.

"What?" Yuka asked.

"I don't want help!" Kagome protested, though it went on deaf ears.

Keiko asked, "What?"

"Let's find Kagome a man for her birthday!" Ayumi said.

"No, no!" Kagome protested. 'Now, I'd gladly take a hundred years of training!' She thought.

Keiko giggled, "That's a great idea! Where should we look, though?"

"It's brilliant!" Eri added.

Yuka said, "I know where we could find someone! He's single and he's my next door neighbor! Our age, I think, but he lives alone."

Keiko asked, "Why would he live alone if he's our age?"

Kagome was ready to sink into the ground. The well, preferably. Even training would be better than this form of torture. These girls could make terrorists beg for mercy, honestly.

Yuka finished, "I'm not sure why he lives alone. He's a bit anti-social, but since he's like your cousin, you'll probably find him really sweet."

Suddenly, Kagome felt the approaching presence of Inuyasha. Kagome thought, 'Yes! I'm saved! He'll drag me away to train, and no birthday-man!' "I'm sorry guys, I just spotted a friend! I'm going to go say hello, and I'll be right back!" Kagome declared.

Keiko said, "Why don't we all go meet this friend?" The other girls agreed.

Kagome was about ready to kill herself, if only to get away from the madness. Why was she friends with these girls again?

Eri said, "Oh, I get it! Kagome, you're feeling ill again aren't you? You're really not up to this kind of excitement..."

Yuka said, "Hey, Kagome we could just have our usual treat-Kagome day."

Keiko saw the blush on Kagome's face and decided it wasn't an illness that bothered Kagome. But she didn't say anything. She pointed to a quarter on the ground. "Oh, hey look..." Keiko had dropped said quarter...

Kagome blinked at the quarter by her sandal. She picked it up, "Heads, I'll have good luck," she whispered the famed superstitious phrase.

Kieko blinked. That wasn't how it was supposed to go. Kagome was supposed to run for it while the other girls were looking at the quarter.

Eri squealed. "You have money in your hand!"

Yuka said, "You have to kiss the first boy you see!"

Kagome immediately closed her eyes. She had had it. "Inuyasha!" she screamed.

"Isn't Inuyasha the name of her ex-boyfriend?" Eri asked. Before the other girls knew it, she was gone.

"Where'd she go?" Yuka complained. "She's gotta kiss a boy!"

Kagome looked at Inuyasha in gratitude. They were on the second floor in the mall. "Thanks, Inuyasha!" she said.

"Why'd you screech my name like that?" he asked grumpily.

"Oh," Kagome blushed. "Well, my friends were trying to get me to..." She paused, and immediately changed what she was going to say, "buy a lamp..."

"You yelled about a lamp?" Inuyasha asked incredulously. "Now I know you're lying!"

"Lying?" Kagome huffed. "I'm not lying! SIT!"

"Fit" Inuyasha's muffled voice said.

"That lamp, I'll have you know, was the ugliest thing I'd ever seen in my entire life! I'll have nightmares about it!" Kagome said as curious mall-walkers looked at the two of them.

"You face down demons on a regular basis and you expect me to believe you're afraid your so-called friends are going to force you to buy a lamp? You're stupider than I thought." he commented, rubbing his head gingerly.

"Well, would you rather have the truth?" Kagome demanded, an evil plan forming.

Mothers were beginning to usher their kids away from the strange people, which created a curious gap in the crowd since they were right by a toy store.

"Duh!" Inuyasha said.

Kagome led him to the magazine store just beside the toy store, pulling him inside by the wrist. She took him over to the 'adult mag' rack and opened one of them for him to see the pictures inside. "They wanted me to model underwear; like these women!"

"What the hell!" Inuyasha exclaimed, "You're friends with that kind of people? What is wrong with you! What is wrong with them?" he continued.

She shh'ed him and put the magazine back, pulling him out of the store. "If it weren't for that stupid jewel, they wouldn't have grown up like this because I would have been there to discourage such behavior. But YOU wanted me to find the shards ALL the TIME!"

"You mean you might have turned out like them?" Inuyasha said dubiously, looking at her strangely. "Are all women of this time like that?" he asked. Red still filled his face from the images he just saw.

"No, I mean they wouldn't have turned out this way and we would have been normal people! But instead, I'm stuck with YOU, a demon, to bother me all the time about this and that and the other thing, and they turned out to be like Miroku!" 'Kissing someone randomly is kind of perverted,' she excused her excuse in her mind.

"So everyone isn't like that here?" he asked. Cause if they were, Kagome would be living in his time. Permanently.

"No, not everyone is like Miroku here. Just like not everyone is like Miroku there." Kagome responded, now just wishing to be alone again.

Then why were there so many scrolls with those kind of pictures?" Inuyasha asked. She wasn't worming her way out of this one.

"Because the few that ARE like that, like a LOT of what you saw." Kagome sighed and pulled him into a clothes store. If he was going to be here, he might as well be useful, and she had an in-store charge at this particular shop.

"Now what are we doing?" Inuyasha asked, giving up for the moment. He'd catch her off guard later.

"Shopping. That's why I came here in the first place." 'I just hope he never meets my friends, or the truth will be out and he'll be furious to know the real truth, that my friends wanted me to kiss someone very random... But what if he isn't mad about that?'

"Shopping? You need to be training!" Inuyasha said, stopping and digging his heels in.

Kagome filled his hands up within ten minutes of dresses, pants, shirts, skirts, and many other things. "I can't train if I don't have clothes. All of mine were burned, except this one!" she lied.

"Ma'am, we have a strict policy of shirts and shoes in this store, and I'm afraid..." one of the women who floated around the store "helping" customers said.

Kagome looked at Inuyasha and sighed. "Why aren't you wearing shoes? Now you'll have to stand outside and wait for me."

Inuyasha snarled. "The hell I am."

She took the clothes from his hands and headed for the dressing room. "I won't be long!"

Inuyasha looked at his empty hands. "Why me?" he asked.

The lady said, "I'm sorry, sir, but rules are rules. I don't make them, I just enforce them. You'll have to stand outside."

"Do you have any of these shoe things here that I can wear?" Inuyasha asked, aggravated.

"We're a clothes shop, not a shoe store." The lady shook her head. "Please leave." Kagome was already in the dressing room.

"Keh!" Inuyasha said, and stomped off. He was going to find shoes and be right back here. Kagome wasn't going to escape that easily.

**This is feathergriffin. My mind is currently on another vacation, possibly with Tsubasa's brain, so I don't have much to add to what she's said already. I'm going to go put out another "missing brain" poster, and hope that if my brain went to Everest again it didn't forget a jacket this time.**


	3. Chapter 3

We have an important announcement! Tsubasa and I DO NOT own Inuyasha. Thank you.

Chapter Three

Kagome left the clothes in the dressing room, crawled under the wall into the next one, then into the next where a lady scoffed, and into the final one where she crawled out directly underneath a clothes rack, hidden by the clothes. 'Escape 101, so glad I took that class,' she thought.

She crawled under the clothes toward the bathroom, and slid open the window. It was a second floor window, but she'd given her friends the slip like this before. She walked along the thin ledge outside the window, hanging onto the wall, and went to the tree that would help her get down.

"So easy!" she said, jumping the few feet to grab the first branch in her hands. She had this routine perfected and could probably do it in her sleep. She climbed safely out of the tree and made a dash for the city. This time he wouldn't find her, she was sure. She made sure to keep in plenty of crowded areas for a while before finding a park to relax in, her feet killing her.

Inuyasha was looking around when a strangely dressed man spotted him, and hauled him into their store.

"You're our one-millionth customer! Congratulations, you get a complete makeover and free wardrobe to match!"

"Huh?" Inuyasha said.

"You're so cute, I saw you and knew you were the one to choose. Rough, but so handsome! This is going to be so much fun, and bring our store more customers!" the man gushed.

"What?!" Inuyasha asked.

"Now, now, you don't get any choices here. You'll get free clothes, free hair cut, free shoes, free everything! Don't argue!"

Inuyasha only heard the shoe part.

Finally, some shoes. Kagome wasn't getting away this time!

Yuka, Eri, Ayumi, and Keiko decided to go visit the old park they had used to hang around in when they were kids and didn't know any better.

"This is going to be so fun!" Ayumi squealed, "I heard they put in a new water feature!"

"Kagome? What are you doing here?" That was Hojou's voice, surprisingly. She shrunk under the shadows of some trees, hoping she wasn't actually seen, but Hojou followed. His supposed new girlfriend was no where in sight. There was a fountain a few feet away, spurting water up as fountains do.

"Oh, Hojou-kun," Kagome blushed, wishing she were invisible. She tries to hide, but never can. What was the point of hiding anymore? Or trying?

"Kagome, I," but he was interupted.

"Kagome, Hojou-kun!" Eri shouted, surprised.

"Kagome!" All the girls rushed over, pushed Hojou out of the way.

Kagome groaned. "Great, my day is complete." she muttered under her breath.

Keiko said, "Is that the one who has a new girlfriend, or is that your ex?"

Yuka said, "This is Hojou-kun! Not Kagome's two-timing, gang-leader ex-boyfriend!"

"What?!" Hojou exclaimed.

Keiko raised her eyebrows, "Gang-leader? I didn't know he was in a gang..."

"I never said he was a gang leader!" Kagome said. "He's not!" She looked at Hojou. "He's really, really not, Hojou-kun. He's sweet sometimes, just really annoying."

"You'll note how she didn't object that the jerk is a two-timer!" Ayumi said.

Kagome was getting tired of this. She was getting a headache, and felt sick to her stomach.

"Hey, guys," Keiko said suddenly. "I know this is going off a limb here, but I really have something I came to this district to talk to Kagome about. Can we meet you guys later?"

Hojou looked at Kagome in dismay. "I'll see you around..." He looked like he believed the 'gang' thing as he raced away.

Kagome was curious what Keiko could want. Eri looked suspicious. "I hope your gang boyfriend isn't fighting Keiko's gang boyfriend!" Eri said.

"I doubt it," Kagome said under her breath.

As the other three girls said their goodbyes, Keiko turned to Kagome and smiled. "You looked like you could use a break from the insanity." she explained.

"Yes," Kagome said, falling rather than sitting on the edge of the fountain.

"You're lucky they didn't remember about the kiss thing," Keiko said.

"I know!" Kagome said. "I thought they would make me kiss Hojou." She shuddered at the thought. Sure the guy was nice, but he was so boring she worried that even kissing him would be boring.

Keiko sat next to Kagome on the fountain. "What do they mean your ex is in a gang?"

"They're making that up. Me and him got in a fight one day, and I complained about him to them. They hadn't even known about him until then, and so the first things they heard about him was that he was a jerk!" Kagome said, "And, well, he is, but a sweet one."

"I know the feeling," Keiko said, sighing, "Everyone at my school always thought I was incredibly brave, talking to Yusuke. I grew up around him, and he's really sweet! He's just been given a bad reputation, and he's had a hard life!" She looked as if she was desperate to convince Kagome that she was right, and she wouldn't have to defend her choice to yet another friend.

"I see..." Kagome paused... "You know, Inuyasha's like that too. He had a hard life growing up. But..." Kagome sighed as she remembered all she knew of him.

"He can be rude, and he's a pervert, but I've seen what he's like on the inside," here Keiko giggled, thinking of Puu, "and he's really cute."

Kagome smiled. "Inuyasha's the sweetest guy too, well, when he's been knocked silly anyway, otherwise it's more of gruffness than anything. But I guess both of us know we can't be together. It'd be... awkward..." She was thinking about the whole 'he lives in another world' thing. "Is Urameshi-san really as scary as they say? Shu-kun told me in a letter that he's incredibly strong and many people are afraid of him."

"Ku...I mean Shuichi said that? He's pretty strong himself," Keiko said, "and you've missed it, actually. The reason all of your friends were so eager to talk about him is that he is totally cute now. All the girls want to be the one who captures his heart. But Urameshi? He's kind of gruff, but he's really good natured unless you hurt his friends, and do something he thinks is wrong. But he's never like that with me." Keiko smiled, lost in memory. The only time Yusuke was really mad at her was when she endangered herself by going after him.

"Shu-kun is strong?" Kagome giggled at that thought. "I remember I used to beat him up all the time with a bokken, you know the wooden practice sword made of bamboo? My dad used to teach me, but I'd forgotten for a long time how to use it--until recently. Inuyasha won't let up; with him, it's always 'Train train train'."

"You're training with the sword? No wonder your legs look so good!" Keiko said.

"The sword, among a multitude of other things. Three of my friends and someone who Inuyasha calls 'old hag' are training me to be stronger. Unfortunately, I know it's for the best." She figured Keiko probably would be suspicious now that she'd said that, but it had just tumbled out of her mouth. All those illnesses couldn't possibly be real...could they? I mean, parvovirus was really stretching the line thin...

"So you're skipping school to train, not because you're sick?!" Keiko exclaimed, "Your grades are important, no matter what this Inuyasha says!"

Kagome sighed; too late now. "I... well, I'm not going to anymore... But Inuyasha won't relent. He keeps pestering me. Yesterday he came to get me to train and I had to lock myself in my room just to get my school work done. But then he just came in through the window anyway. I mean, he's my friend and all, and I know he's only worried for me," she trailed off, thinking of the full Shikon no Tama on the rosary around her neck. It was hidden by a powerful invisibility spell, but she still grasped it.

"Are you in danger?" Keiko asked worried, "Is someone after you?"

"Oh," Kagome sighed and pulled herself out of her memories, "oh, no... Nothing like that..." 'I hope,' She amended silently. 'But this jewel attracts attention at the worst possible moment...' "He... he probably just knows of the recent serial rapist... the one that's showed up these past six months...So he and our friends keep me training. Sango's already so tough she could beat anyone, and Miroku's so perverted that it's more of a question of saving others from his wandering hands..."

She stopped rambling when it looked like Keiko wasn't buying it. Immediately she stood up. "Oh, I have to go now," she looked at her non-existent watch; "my mama is calling me..." she waved and ran off before Keiko could even react. She was fast for an 'ill' person.

Keiko narrowed her eyes. "Kagome is hiding something from me. She's obviously in trouble, and she isn't going to let me help her." She thought for a moment, then smiled. "However, whoever is after her can't stand up to the Spirit Detectives. I'll just call Kurama, and let him know about the situation. Then Kagome can come visit over there, and we can keep an eye on her."

Keiko nodded decisively. It was intervention time.

When Kagome reached home, she was breathing hard and she was worried. She'd let her memories take hold of her and she'd opened up to Keiko though she'd known she shouldn't. Just because Keiko was in almost the same situation, she'd opened up. She just hoped Keiko was like the other girls and forgot quickly.

AN from feathergriffin, hopefully to be shortly added onto by Tsubasa.

You know, it's really sad. We have all these pages and pages and pages of this story floating around, but we haven't edited that much of it because no one seems interested. Oh well.

TK here. Heh. My good friend Feather is so right. It's terrible, because there's so few reviews and so few interested people. We'd have more motivation to continue this, perhaps updating every couple days if we just got a lot of people who were interested. Quite literally, we have 100+ pages for this, all just waiting to be split up, editted for spelling/grammar, and then posted, but no one wants them? Should we keep them to ourselves?


	4. Chapter 4

**Title: Lost Enroute to Fate  
**Author: What the hell was our name again?  
_Disclaimer: I really don't remember our name! This TK is panicking! Starting to hyperventilate! Mobile hysteria! Arms waving everywhere! I should go look it up! But I am incredibly lazy! (Owning is the equivalent of having something… All we have is our friendship, which is free and really has no cash payout, although if our friendship could be measured in money, it is this TK's opinion that Feather and I would be rich!)_

_feathergriffin looks over at TK, an eyebrow raised slightly. "We spent what, twenty, thirty minutes brainstorming for that name, and you have already forgotten it? It was quite appropriate too. Feline Mischief ring any bells?"_

**

* * *

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Chapter four

Keiko nodded decisively. It was intervention time.

-

Mama saw her approach. The older woman was carrying two grocery bags, one on each hip. "Ah, Kagome-chan! You're just in time! Inuyasha-kun got back from the mall, and I believe he will need a thorough explanation of what women clothes and men clothes in our time are..." she looked like she was fighting back a giggle.

Kagome blinked. "What?" she asked, not quite understanding.

"And Inuyasha's hair! Just wait to you see what's happened to it! He's recovering in the kitchen. I'm making him Ramen now." Mama said.

"Oh dear... someone touched his hair?" Kagome paled. 'I hope they're still alive...' Kagome had the random thought of, 'Now if it were Sesshoumaru, I know they'd be dead... but dang if that man isn't gorgeous when he's wet...' The thought left her standing there awkwardly.

Kagome entered the kitchen, nervous about what awaited her. Inuyasha was sitting on a chair by the kitchen table, and seemed to be trying to melt into it. His hair, from what she could see, was cut extremely short, and his clothes...what had happened to his clothes?

Inuyasha's nose twitched and he lifted his head up slightly, giving Kagome the most pathetic look she had ever seen. "K, Kagome?" he asked.

"Inuyasha, what happened to you?!" she exclaimed, rushing over.

"All I wanted were some shoes. This weird guy said he'd give me some free ones, but before that they did so many things to me! You never told me this time was so dangerous!" he said, weariness laced into his voice.

She'd once gotten separated from Inuyasha and the others when she'd accidentally stumbled upon the edge of a small cliff. Nothing serious; she suffered only a six foot drop into a deep hot spring, but when she'd come up, she had help. A hand was around her neck, cutting off the circulation and air. She'd stumbled upon a bathing Sesshoumaru--at the time she'd thought she would die, but quite thankfully she lived to tell the tale.

"You didn't kill anyone, did you?" Kagome asked. Suddenly, Kagome looked closely at Inuyasha. Then more closely. "Inuyasha," she said slowly, "stand up."

He did as asked, but timidly.

Kagome's mouth fell open. Inuyasha hair was...gone. Lengths of it had been sheered off, and while the result was admittedly way hot, she felt a pang of sadness for the departed locks.

And his clothes. "Inuyasha, that's a dress..." Kagome started...

"What do you mean?" he asked.

She pointed at his outfit. "This is... what women wear in my time." She pointed to what her mother wore, and to her own skirt. "Women wear these."

Energy flooded back into Inuyasha's frame. "What?!" he yelled.

"Calm down! It's ok---Inuyasha, is that makeup?" She rubbed at his cheek. He was wearing blush. A second glance showed him to have lipstick on. Pink eye shadow adorned his eyes--she could see how he was traumatized.

"Make-up? No, I don't want to know! Just get this off me and into some decent clothes!" he asked.

She bit her lip until it bled so she wouldn't laugh. "Come on, I think papa has some old clothes that'll fit you." She drug him upstairs and made him sit on her mother's bed while she rummaged through the closet.

"Hey, Kagome," Inuyasha hesitated. "I think I met Jankotsu's reincarnation." He waited for her to say something in disbelief, but nothing came forth except a moment of silence where the only sound heard was the rustling of clothes.

"Remind me who that was again?" She asked suddenly.

"And you're supposed to be the guardian of the Shikon no Tama?" he asked skeptically.

"Hey, we fought a lot of crappy bad guys, okay?" she returned, "I can't be expected to remember them all!"

"That blond guy who wanted my ears," he said grumpily, "my day's been bad enough, don't make it worse."

"Ooooh... uh... yeah... I remember..." Clearly she did not care to remember what gay guys traumatized Inuyasha. "He was the big guy with the bazooka on his arm right?"

"Do you have a weapons fetish or something?" he snapped, "The guy with the weird snaky sword thing."

"Oh, right! Him... Yeah, I remember him now. Ah hah!" She pulled out an old, dusty box and held it like precious cargo. "The label says these were his." she walked over and set the box on the bed. Pulling the tape off, she opened it; inside were kimonos like Sesshoumaru wore, and with the exact same patterns on it, red sakura blossoms. "Uh... not exactly what I was expecting, but better than a dress, right? I wonder why papa had clothes with this particular pattern."

"You do have a weapons fetish," Inuyasha muttered, "and I ain't wearing anything with my half brother's signature!"

"What do you mean, signature? And I don't have a weapons fetish! Fine," she shoved the box into his arms. There were three kimonos in it, each with an inner yukata, outer haori, and the hakama. "You can wear these, or the dress. Your choice." She was tired of being nice and her birthday had so far been really crappy. She was going to take a shower. She stormed from the room.

"What's her problem?" Inuyasha muttered, "Her day couldn't have been as bad as mine. And all I wanted was to be able to do something with her without her getting angry. All I wanted was some shoes." He selected a set in various greens and started to put it on.

Kagome, who'd leaned on the door for a moment before she went off to take a shower, felt a small bit of guilt overcome her. He wanted to do something with her, and she had abandoned him to Jankotsu's reincarnation, or soul mate.

And if she had stayed, maybe she would have been able to have had a nice day with Inuyasha, or at least relatively, and would not have run into Hojou and her friends at the park, or revealed more than she should have to Keiko. "Great," she muttered as she walked to the shower, "Now I'm guilty too. Happy Birthday," she said bitterly.

The shower didn't make her feel better like it was supposed to, but she stayed in until the water turned cold and then after wrapping a towel around her wet body she sat down on the closed toilet seat to let herself air-dry, not wanting to face Inuyasha.

Only when she'd managed to come up with a solution to apologize for his lost hair did she get dressed in a dark blue dress with wide straps and one end of the hem dipping only to her knees while the other end went to just above her ankles.

She found Inuyasha brooding in the well house, likely contemplating going back without her. "Inuyasha..." she said.

"What?" he grumbled.

"Do you want to go shopping? This time, I promise I won't ditch you. I won't even say 'sit'. Oops..." she mumbled as he crashed to the ground.

"Go to that insane place again?" he demanded, fighting the spell. "I don't think you should even consider going there, not if it's filled with perverts and psychos!"

"Not there. I was thinking about going to a weapons store, and then maybe we could go to a Ramen restaurant then ice cream," Kagome offered.

His ears perked at the word, 'Ramen'. "Ramen? Where?"

Kagome couldn't help herself. She giggled. "We could go to the Ramen restaurant first," she said, smiling. His ears perked up a bit, and a small smile came over his face.

"Let's go," he said, and offered her his hand.

Kagome smiled and took the proffered hand. Then she remembered something. "Oh," she gasped, then let go of his hand and raced into the house.

"What?" Inuyasha asked himself. A minute later, Kagome came back waving her purse. "I almost forgot this!"

"Kagome, honey!" her mother called out the door. "Please don't forget you need to be home by five thirty. You wouldn't want to miss your own birthday party. We have a great surprise for you."

"Okay mama!" Kagome told her. Then, when she and Inuyasha were out of sight, she asked Inuyasha, "Will you help me remember?" He knew she was terrible at keeping time.

"Sure. But what is a Birthday party? What is a birthday, and why do you celebrate it?" Inuyasha asked.

"A birthday is the day you were born, like how you were born on the new moon, so you transform once a month into a human, on the new moon. Except we celebrate only once a year on the day of our birth, to commemorate our growing ages."

"Why didn't you tell us about it?" Inuyasha asked, "And it's been over a year since I met you. You must have had more than this one."

"Well, I've always been here, so I guess I didn't think about it, though I guess four years is a long time to not know someone's birthday. Well, anyway now you know."

Inuyasha grumbled a bit, but then he said, "I smell ramen..." his pace picked up unconsciously.

Kagome smiled a bit, and matched his pace. Suddenly she remembered something. 'All my friends will be at my birthday party. Oh no!'

"What's your problem? Why're you all closed faced now?" she always seemed to close her face from her emotions these past few weeks when she was thinking. He wondered where she picked up the emotionless mask trait, but hadn't asked, figuring it to just be a passing stage.

"My friends are going to be there," she said.

"Your pervert friends?" he asked, "I don't want to meet no more perverts today."

"Eh..." 'I'd rather you didn't meet them either,' she thought. She didn't say it though, knowing it would hurt his feelings that she didn't want him to meet her friends. "Well, you could avoid talking to them by sticking with Souta. He usually invites a friend or two and the girls won't go by him." 'I wonder if Keiko will be there too,' Kagome thought. 'Is Keiko the big surprise? Because if so, then that's blown...'

"Maybe I should just go back afterwards," he muttered, "after we eat, can we go hunt down that guy who destroyed my hair? I want my fire rats' robes back. They're they only thing I have that my parents left me."

Kagome said, "Only if you promise not to kill him."

"I don't want to kill him," Inuyasha said, grinning, and cracking his knuckles.

'Oh boy...' "How about not beating him up either... is that an option?" she pleaded.

Inuyasha pouted, though he would deny it fiercely if anyone suggested the possibility. "Can I at least scare him?"

"Uh, no. How about you let me get them for you? You can show me where the shop is, and I'll retrieve them."

"Kagome, he stole my clothes, and took advantage of me! Have you not seen my hair?" he yelled.

"Why did you let it get that far, anyways? Why didn't you leave?" Kagome asked.

"I wanted the shoes," he mumbled.

Kagome had to stifle the giggle. "You could've beaten him up and just taken the shoes. Granted, that generally gets you in trouble, but... With you able to whisk away to another time period, it's not like anyone would ever find you."

Inuyasha blinked. Then his face darkened. "I ain't a thief. I had to do it enough when I was younger, and I told myself I wouldn't do it again."

"What about the jewel?" Kagome said.

"Kikyou shot at me! I was angry, and she had promised it to me!" he said defensively.

She clutched the invisible jewel around her neck worriedly. The burden of it hadn't quite been felt yet, since as of yet—in the last three days since she'd had it whole—no one had come for it. But the burden would come sooner or later and everyone would know she had it. Then she would truly be Kikyou's reincarnation.

That was why Inuyasha and the others, even Kaede, pushed her to be strong—to be stronger than Kikyou had been.

Inuyasha noticed her motion, and his eyes softened, "It's not going to be like that for you." he said.

"We don't know that yet... I mean, there has to be demons in my time... think about it; the Noh Mask was one... wasn't it? So there's bound to be more. And even if there aren't; humans still are attracted to the jewel, and sometimes they're worse than demons..."

She shuddered at the thought. When she'd stumbled upon Sesshoumaru bathing, humans had attacked for the pieces of the jewel that she'd had. He'd killed them with a single flick of the wrist, which meant dropping her, but after that he hadn't killed her. "I won't lower myself to killing you, though I could easily dispense of you." he had said. "It's easy to see that you won't last long."

The most frightening thing was that this had only happened a few weeks ago; humans had given their lives, risking a demon's anger, just for the jewel. She hadn't told Inuyasha or the others about that yet.

"Kagome," Inuyasha said, "You promised you would stay by my side, right?"

Kagome looked at him sadly. "For tonight..." she said. 'It hurts, but we can't stay together. We're too different, from two different eras...' She thought. She hoped he knew that too so she wouldn't have to explain it. She'd rather have their parting be mutual understanding, and they could remain friends forever, able to see each other once in a while, but not too often.

Inuyasha's eyes darkened, "I know that time separates us, Kagome! But now I'm telling you that I'm going to keep my promise, and protect you!"

Kagome stopped walking, her head down, her eyes shadowed by her still-wet bangs. "We both know there's going to come a day when you can't keep that promise. I am simply telling you now that I won't think you betrayed me when that day comes..."

Inuyasha ran his hand through his hair, though the effect wasn't the same now that it was short. "Damn it, Kagome, I'm not an idiot! Why do you think Miroku, Sango, Kaede, and I are so worried about training you?! I might not be able to be with you all the time, but if my, and everyone else's, training is with you, it can't leave you! I'm doing the best I can!"

A tear was suddenly visible on her cheek.

Inuyasha suddenly felt bad about raising his voice. "I'm sorry Kagome," he said.

"No, it's okay..."

"I just don't like the idea of me not being there to protect you," he said, looking away. Luckily, not many people were around to see their scene.

"Well," Kagome wiped her cheeks and looked up at him, holding out her dry hand. "How about this? I invite you to be my brother-on-the-other-side-of-the-well."

"Bro, brother?" Inuyasha asked, disbelievingly.

She nodded. "You can come whenever you want, and I'm sure we can even get you a spare key."

"You want me to be your brother?" he asked, looking away as he felt liquid start to fill his eyes. 'I ain't gonna cry.' he thought. He would rather spend his life together with her, but he knew that wouldn't work. If his way to be close to her was through this plan, perhaps it was better. They could remain on good terms.

She replied simply, "I know you've always wanted a family... mama likes you enough, though gramps still plasters paper on your head. Souta adores you, and when papa comes back from his traveling I'm sure he too will love you!"

"That, that would be great! Wait a moment, your dad's alive?!" he said, distracted from the uncomfortably mushy, at least from him, scene.

"Yeah. He left to travel the world when I was about five. He sends us postcards and letters and souvenirs all the time. He sent a letter the other day, though I'm irritated at mama, 'cause she wouldn't let me read it. She said it was filled with 'mushy parent talk'. Sex talk, in other words. All the things he'll do to her when he returns." Kagome was blushing profusely now.

"Why'd any dad leave his family to see the world? His family should be the world!" Inuyasha said angrily.

Kagome shrugged. She'd felt that way too for a long time, mad that he wouldn't be around to teach her to use the bokken anymore. Then she hit her rebellious teen years and decided she didn't care, though she really did. "Ramen?" she asked, to turn the subject. "When we get home I can show you things papa sent home to us."

Inuyasha grunted, though his ears perked up. Of course, they were barely visible through Inuyasha's fluffy hair cut. "We better be visiting Mr. Pervert guy later." he insisted.

"Eager to see him again, are you?" she teased. She was glad that she could view him as family now, because if she were honest with herself, she loved him like family not like a lover. She was close to him, but Kikyou seemed to have his heart and she wasn't sure if she wanted to steal that.

Inuyasha "keh"ed and stalked toward the favored food.

Kagome giggled and ran after him. She purchased him a bowl of ramen and drug him away when he could've eaten the ramen shop out of business, and her out of money. They viewed the shops, and stopped at the pervert's claimed shop. It was PACKED.

"No need to rush, everyone, we have plenty!" the pervert guy was yelling.

While Kagome assured Inuyasha that she would retrieve his things, she stalked into the store, easily maneuvering herself through the busy crowd. When she made it to the pervert guy, she saw Inuyasha's clothes were on display, tacked to the wall.

"Those are my friend's clothes," she pointed at them and said to the pervert guy, "and I want them back." She would just be reasonable and logical and not get mad even though the guy's falsetto voice as he shouted out to people throughout the store was the most annoying sound she'd ever heard.

"Sorry, honey, they're for the auction. Besides, I replaced his clothes, and gave him his precious shoes. Were you the Kagome he kept mentioning?" Each word he said seemed to put her in even worse of a mood.

He added, "Shameful how you couldn't be bothered getting that poor guy some decent foot wear." he said, smirking at her. That smile grated on her nerves, and for some really odd reason she noticed his lashes were too long to possibly be real.

She scowled. "You put him in dress and make up, cut off his hair, and gave him HIGH HEELS! He's a guy, for cripes sake!" She was ready to smack something. It was such an odd feeling to be so brash. Wasn't this how Inuyasha was supposed to be? Wasn't she supposed to be the logical, level-headed one who tried to talk the brash one out of doing things?

"He wasn't complaining that much, honey. You should have bought him those shoes. Now be a nice little girl and go sulk by yourself." He said in that sickeningly sweet voice.

It was the last straw for Kagome. To be told what to do, especially by someone who she didn't even know, was infuriating. Didn't this man know who she was? She was the guardian of a powerful and mystical object, and not to mention the daughter of a powerful business man, Higurashi-sama.

The inappropriately timed thought of, 'I've forgotten Papa's first name…' came to mind suddenly and she had to thrust the thought aside. "You think I'll sulk, when my newly-turned-brother's family heirloom clothes are sitting up for grabs by any ridiculous madman?!"

"Well, yes," his smile grew.

She counted backwards from 500, though she couldn't wait that long and pretty much just thought, '500, 2, 1' before she slapped the man. The sound rang out and suddenly it felt like the temperature had dropped 50 degrees in the shop. All sounds died down except her voice, which was surprisingly calm. "I'll make your life a living hell if you don't give me my brother's clothes; and believe me, I can do far more than just slap, and neither am I afraid to do more..."

Whispers rang into the crowd, "That girl just hit him..."

"I wonder who she is..."

"What's going on..?"

"Girl, you don't know who you're messing with," the man said, glaring at her as he held his throbbing cheek.

"I don't need to know who I'm messing with to kick the living daylights out of you." She slipped her foot around his ankle and yanked, just like Sango had taught her, and aided his fall faster by shoving him.

"I'll have you thrown in jail!" the man yelled at her.

"You can throw me in jail, but my brother'll get his clothes back first." Kagome said. She promptly stepped over him, pulled a nearby ladder over, and stepped up it to begin pulling out the tacks.

A cry of protests came from the crowd.

Kagome folded the haori and yukata carefully, then began pulling the tacks out of the hakama. Once she had folded it, she jumped off the ladder and landed smoothly, even wearing her dress. The man was still on the ground; she was surprised that he was. She'd expected more from Renkotsu--or whoever he'd been--incarnation.

"As for who I'm dealing with," Kagome gave the man her best Sesshoumaru-imitation blank mask and watched him gulp. She figured it must have worked. "I think that's a moot point," she thought, 'Why not?' and leapt further into fire, "considering I could crush your whole family in my billfold."

She'd pretty much admitted her family was rich, but if it worked for other girls, to get respect simply because of her family's riches, then maybe she ought to try it out? "Bitch," the man muttered weakly.

"You know, that gets old." She mused, still wearing that Sesshoumaru-like mask. "No one is ever original anymore." 'I hope Shu-kun doesn't hear of me being so rude and acting like a rich kid... he'd chastise me for it...' She stepped toward the door and was surprised to see that people were actually moving away from her like she was a disease. She clutched the kimono to her chest. 'I feel really badass...' That thought brought a giggle to her lips and ruined the effect.

Around her she heard muttering people. "Crazy," from one direction, "has anyone called the cops?"

"What is she's telling the truth?"

"Are you crazy?" Kagome's smile only widened.

Inuyasha marched up to Kagome. "Nice." he said. "Watched it through the window there." Indeed a glance through the window gave a view of the interior of the store where the man was on the floor. And Inuyasha hadn't interfered? "But wasn't it YOU who said not to attack?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kagome said loftily.

"Right... sure. And my name is Sesshoumaru and I'm a ruthless killer." He drawled before pulling the wrist watch from the haori top and looking at it. "You're late."

"What?!" she screeched. Before Inuyasha could register what had happened, he had once again become Kagome's fast taxi express.

However, Inuyasha stopped abruptly at the foot of the shrine steps. He was sniffing, and very tense. 'It's faint but...' he thought. 'But definitely HIM...'

Kagome went ahead up the stairs without noticing the 'danger' that lurked. She burst into the shrine and bent double, breathing hard as if she'd personally been the one to run all the way from the mall.

"Kagome! Be careful! Sess," and Inuyasha stopped in his tracks, gaping at the sight in front of him, mouth falling open. The shrine looked ominously darkened with all the lights out. Even at night, there always was a light on, in the kitchen or the living room. Something was very wrong here… It had to be…

"I'm here!" Kagome called. Her human eyes could see nothing but shadow. "Hullo?" she inquired of the darkness. "Mama? Souta? O-jii-san?"

* * *

TK would like to say, "Thanks to all who have read this, and to those who reviewed it, you have made a crazy woman happy! I am noticing in future chapters that as me and Feather continue forward with this story, the flow gets better times a hundred! I won't demand it, but I will ask that you be gracious citizens of the fan fiction universe and review or may the fan fiction gods torment you with unhappy dreams… But of course, as was promised by me, I personally will no longer demand reviews."

**Feathergriffin would like to add to TK's statement and point out that, "While we aren't demanding reviews, the chapter length, if you haven't noticed, has increased. There is a direct correlation between the chapter length and the increase in reviews. Isn't that a funny coincidence? We thought so too! And yes, the flow improved as we both got used to writing together instead of chatting all the time. I hope you enjoy that too! I'll shut up now!"**


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: TK has nothing really important to say except a thank you for those who read this story.

Disclaimer #2: feagrif adds that we don't own Inuyasha. I'm sure TK just FORGOT that little fact. No problem, it's being taken care of!

Chapter five

"There's a spirit in the shrine!" her grandfather yelled, and Kagome ended up with an ofuda stuck to her face.

Kagome was beginning to get nervous. But when her grandfather smacked her with a scroll, she ended up on her rump and moaned at the sticky feel. "O-jii-san, it's me! Kagome!"

"It's imitating my granddaughter! Be gone, spirit!" more ofudas came flying through the air towards her.

Kagome was never more grateful her grandfather was powerless. The glue did more damage.

And she had liked this dress!

"O-jii-san," said a quiet, masculine voice from behind Kagome as she tried to peel herself free. She'd almost been plastered to the floor. The light switch turned on, brightening the house. "You spoiled the surprise, you old geezer." that man said.

Kagome turned to see who was there and promptly screamed at the sight. "EEEK! Sess...sess..houmaru..." And fell promptly back on her butt when she had just stood up from her previous fall.

"Now, is that any way to greet your dear father?" Sesshoumaru quirked an eyebrow at her. "After a long journey around the world, I'm just not up to screaming, idiot girls."

"Oh, honey," Kagome's mother came into the room. "Please, don't be rude to your father."

"But mama," Kagome whined, not believing her ears. "This is... this is treason! I'm not even a demon! Or a half-breed, or whatever the heck I'd be!"

O-jii-san said, "I can explain that! With my great powers in your blood, your demon blood was purified before you were born."

"Wow." Sesshoumaru drawled. "That almost made sense." He looked at Ai. "Now that the surprise is spoiled, how about that cake? I'd kill for some of your cooking."

A shiver ran down Kagome's spine. Kill. He'd kill. Homicidal maniac in her house... What was she supposed to do? "I fell coming up the stairs and hit my head. This is a weird dream from a concussion and I'll wake up and everything will be back to normal." Kagome told herself firmly.

Just three weeks ago, Kagome had seen this man naked. And now, he was standing in her house, claiming to be her father. "I refuse to think this is anything more than a dream," she said suddenly.

The others had been heading into the kitchen, but where was Souta? Sesshoumaru let the others go ahead of him, then looked back at Kagome. "I may not have been around much, but everything I wrote to you in those letters these past years were all true. Come to me later and I'll tell you why I had to leave... or don't, it's entirely up to you."

"But, I just saw you three weeks ago!" Kagome protested.

"You can't be Kagome's father!" Inuyasha chimed in.

Kagome looked at Inuyasha, never having heard him come in.

Sesshoumaru shrugged and shoved his hands into his jean pockets. "Can't I?" He had two arms, she noticed weakly. Two very strong, very clawed arms with very maroon striped markings on the wrists that could be used very easily to kill her.

Inuyasha said, "She's not even graceful! She has no sense in time or direction and a terrible memory!"

"Is that my fault? Children are the products of both their parents," Sesshoumaru looked like he didn't care either way if Inuyasha was there. "Ai used to be that way. She also used to be the worst cook in the world. Either she's gotten better, or I've just lost all sense in taste over the years."

A spoon hit him in the back of the head. Sesshoumaru added as an afterthought, "Temper also comes from her side of the fami--" Another spoon hit him, followed by a quiet, "I have no temper!"

Sesshoumaru looked at Kagome once more. "Your friends were here, but they annoyed me and I sent them away."

"WAIT!" Kagome paused. "If Shu-kun is related to me through you... and he's human... how is that possible?"

"Descendant of Rin." was the response. "Not a direct relation."

"I'm getting a headache," Kagome moaned.

"Forget the headaches," Inuyasha said mournfully, "I've got a stomach ache..." He... was Kagome's... uncle. "This... would've been nice knowledge a few years ago..." Considering Kagome and Inuyasha had kissed once or thrice—none too dispassionately—in the past four years…

"By the way, Inuyasha, nice haircut." Sesshoumaru sounded very dry. "But know that you're going to have to go back through the well very soon so Kagome can seal it."

"What!" Kagome and Inuyasha both yelled.

Sesshoumaru sighed. It didn't look like he'd be getting his cake any time soon. "Outside, both of you." He said firmly. He strolled past them leisurely stepping out into the night.

Once they made it outside, Kagome stopped and turned around. "All right, I have one more question to ask to make sure you're my real father. Why don't I have any of your powers, looks, or personality traits?"

Sesshoumaru remained silent, simply staring at her with piercing eyes. When he finally spoke, it was clear that he wasn't about to answer just because Inuyasha was growling for an answer, or because she demanded one. He spoke because he wanted to.

"Come; I will show you something." Sesshoumaru strode briskly across the property, going past the well to a small, simple door that Kagome could remember was always locked. There was only one man in the whole world with a key to that door. Sesshoumaru pulled out the key and unlocked it.

The door opened, and as Kagome followed Sesshoumaru into the room, she started to cough violently. Her allergies to mold and dust were more severe than many, and Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru watched in alarm as Kagome bent double, holding her stomach.

"Do something!" Inuyasha yelled at Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru blinked momentarily then looked surprised. "Oh, that's right. Allergies. I almost forgot you had them." He held out a kerchief, though WHERE he had pulled it from remained unclear. Probably his pocket. He held it out to her with his left hand, which was had to consciously remind herself not to shy away from in terror. "Cover your face up. Inuyasha, run to the house and tell Ai we need Kagome's allergy spray, pronto."

Inuyasha growled and said, "You want me to do as YOU say? Yeah right!" He didn't budge an inch.

Sesshoumaru leveled Inuyasha with a rather cold stare. "You are going to argue about the life of Kagome, the girl you swore to protect?" he said, his voice a chilling monotone.

Inuyasha blanched. "Um..." he looked desperately at Kagome for an answer.

Kagome was sagging against the wall, tears running down her face. Inuyasha gulped, and disappeared up the stairs.

Sesshoumaru pulled Kagome's allergy medication out of his pocket and handed it to her... At her questioning glance, he said wryly, "I couldn't very well remain in his presence forever, could I?"

As Kagome used it, she glared up at him with all of her strength. As it slowly started to take effect, her breathing slowed and started to return to normal. "You had it"—and she drew in more air, wincing—"the entire time? When I," and she started to cough weakly again, one hand holding her sore throat, and the other her stomach.

"When you what? That almost sounds threatening…" Sesshoumaru raised one eyebrow. "Ai knows I want to speak to you alone, so she'll occupy Inuyasha as long as possible. You know how persuasive she can be." He turned his back to her flipping on a light switch. Inside this strange room was the source of that dust and mold.

Scroll upon scroll upon book upon text was in here, a massive two story library that it was hard to believe even existed in the shrine. "The Book of the Prophets, Princess." Sesshoumaru said, using the same pet nickname her father used to use for her. "It states that 'thy prince's sacred maiden shall be found in the dusty tombs of the most precious of tomes'." What exactly could that mean?

In the center of this large library like room, the bookshelves all pointed to a single pedestal that had a glowing book on it. The book was flipped open on the pedestal and was, strangely, not all that large. It was perhaps the size of someone's journal.

Suddenly, Kagome thought she heard the most beautiful music, as if a chorus of angels were singing. Then she blinked, and she shook her head. She was imagining things. That only happened on movies.

Sesshoumaru walked toward that book and the books, scrolls, and even heavier tombs seemed to fly to the other shelves, almost as if trying to hit him. He nimbly sidestepped every attempt for a man who was over five hundred years old. Not to mention he looked pretty damn good for five hundred years old.

'What are you thinking, perverted Kagome?' She yelled at herself. 'If he really is my dad, I can't think like that about him!'

Sesshoumaru stopped in front of the pedestal and turned to look at her. The books stopped moving. "You'll have to come over here." Sesshoumaru said. "If those books touch you, by the way, they'll suck you into their worlds much like the well does."

Then an even worse thought hit her. 'I'll bet my friends are all going to be all weird about this, giggling around him and everything. This is gonna suck.'

"Hurry up, Princess. Ai can't keep Inuyasha forever." Sesshoumaru looked annoyed, as if he heard her thought.

Kagome blinked. "What?!" she said, her voice still hoarse, "I can't avoid all of those books! And who came up with that idea, anyhow? They need a new brain," Kagome muttered to herself, looking at the books doubtfully.

Sesshoumaru chuckled. "Blame your mother. It was her idea to do it. I had nothing to do with it."

"How does she get through it?!" Kagome complained.

"How should I know?" Sesshoumaru scoffed. "I had to go through several hundred of these book-worlds before I managed to avoid them all. Now get over here."

"But!" and Kagome gave up. She resigned herself to visiting some more weird places. At least she'd be away from this crazy person, and maybe she'd even get a vacation. If she lived through this, she was going to have a word with her mother about her idea of book protection.

As Kagome stepped forward into the bookshelves, Sesshoumaru's eyes twinkled. The books didn't budge an inch like they had for him. Kagome froze, looking around her. Then she ran for it.

Still the books never moved as she passed through, as if they didn't have minds of their own. On the inside of the circle of shelves, standing next to the pedestal with Sesshoumaru, Kagome looked at the book on the stand. It was ordinary and white, except for the fact that it glowed in the dim lighting of the room. "What's this book?"

"The Book of the Prophets. It was written by your ancestors long before even my birth. My father came across it in his travels before I was born and he read it. Unfortunately as he read it, the ink disappeared and all I have are the tales told to me by my father of what actually was written in it."

"You must have scared it," Kagome said wryly.

Sesshoumaru reached out and closed the book, touching the spine of it as if it were a fond friend. "Truth to tell, I'M petrified of IT." He closed his eyes lightly. "It speaks of things I cannot envision... It spoke of YOU, in particular."

"So I'm scary?" Kagome asked, her eyebrow rising.

"No. What is scary for me is that it spoke of me falling in love with a human. Once I knew of this, I immediately vowed I would never love one. Then it spoke of me being the first demon to aid in the conception of an entirely human child... It made reference to an ancient Kagemusha." He took a breath as she stepped back

"Kagemusha were always blessed with the power of the Priestess or Priest. Knowing that I would give life to something that could have potential to be powerful... far more than me... I sought to evade that fate. Then your mother came along. I was just minding my own business and she ran into me. She was off in her own little world, reading a book as she walked to her college class. We almost got run over, you know."

Sesshoumaru looked at Kagome; there were lines around his lips and eyes that had not been present when she'd seen him naked in the hotspring three weeks earlier —well, five hundred years earlier for him anyway. "She was going to college simply to learn to cook. 'It's the only thing I can't do, so if I learn that, I'll make a perfect housewife,' she told me weeks later."

Kagome couldn't stop herself from blurting, "So how did you end up with her then, if you hated humans?"

"I don't even know how we ended up together," he replied, "but I saw her often, since I kept house near the college she went to. What I do know is that right before your sixth birthday, I knew I had to leave if I was going to keep my sanity. It was painful, watching her grow old and yet me, I stay the same. Because of her blood, you're all human."

"When your mother called me and said you'd finished your quest through the well, I knew I needed to come back." It was to be wondered why Sesshoumaru would feel the need to come back. He didn't seem like the type who would have "needs" to fulfill.

Kagome's lips formed a tiny 'o' shape. It was understandable for someone who couldn't die to not want to let their mate grow old in front of them. But what about the fusion of one life to another like Inuyasha had said demons did? She asked that question, hesitantly.

Her response was a soft, "You can't bind a priestess's life to your own. It just isn't possible, Princess."

"Why'd you do it then, dad? Get mated to mama? If you knew what was going to happen," Kagome couldn't continue.

He closed his eyes as if he couldn't bear to look at her, knowing her fate was something strange and terrible. He jammed his hands in his jean pockets and said, "I tried to stay away from your mother... But every time I did, she ended up getting hurt. She was extremely graceless, and had a temper to rival that of both the wolf prince and Inuyasha combined. She'd gotten into a fist fight with some ruffians in the bad part of town... I wasn't following her..." It was clear that he had been, if he knew this much. "It's just... I happened to be there, and happened to stop the fight before she happened to get herself killed."

"Why couldn't I at least gotten your graceful genes, since apparently I've inherited my let's get into trouble genes from her?" Kagome asked, trying to lighten the mood.

Sesshoumaru picked up the glowing book, handling it with care despite that he wasn't meaning to. He chuckled, "I wish you'd at least have my hair, or my eyes. But no, unfortunately you're the spitting image of your mother."

"What did I get from you," Kagome pouted.

"Everything you wanted, if you'll recall. I spoiled you rotten, yet you remained a sweet, annoyingly innocent child who asked for nothing yet gave away everything." Sesshoumaru said, his eyes slightly brighter. "Some of my intelligence, since your mother doesn't seem to have much," he added as a book shot out at him, forcing him to dodge it. "Damn it, her temper gets to me..." he grinned though, his eyes lighting up like the lights in a pinball machine. He liked that temper, it seemed.

"Wait a moment, I know what you did!" Kagome said, looking at him accusingly.

He blinked innocently at her. "Do you?"

"I have three white hairs in the back of my head! You know how long I've been teased about going old?!" Kagome protested.

He snickered at her and didn't respond to that. He held the glowing book out to her. "Here; by right, The Book of the Prophets is yours. You can have it."

"Oh goody, a book that can double as a flashlight!" Kagome said, but took the book, holding it gingerly.

The pages seemed to open and the book clamped down on her hand like teeth, as if it didn't want to be by her. Sesshoumaru burst into laughter, clutching the pedestal to keep standing at the flustered look on his daughter's face.

"Ouch!" Kagome said, and tried to stroke its spine. Nothing happened. "That's supposed to work! It did in Harry Potter!"

Sesshoumaru was laughing so hard now that tears sprang to his eyes. He reached out, placing a hand on the book. "I might need to add," he said between breaths, "that it hates priestesses? Tell it you're a half-breed, because technically you are, and it'll probably settle down."

The book started to gnaw on her hand. "Ouch! Ouch! I'm a half-breed, you stupid piece of processed plants! Let go!"

Unfortunately, the book didn't like being offended and instead it released her and burst through the domed glass ceiling above, taking away into the night as if she'd hurt it's feelings.

Sesshoumaru finally managed to calm down shortly after. "Well, Princess, your mother can proudly say you have her temp--" A book smacked him in the face and he disappeared. The book shot back onto the shelf.

Well, that's that! Thanks for all of the reviews, and we have plenty more where this came from, so look forward to the next update! Whenever we remember to…


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer:

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you. Do you understand your Miranda rights?" a policeman said, having just caught feathergriffin who had made a valiant effort to escape.

"No! Wait! Me and Tsubasa really do not claim any right to Inuyasha and Yu Yu Hakusho! Please!" feathergriffin says, struggling slightly with the rather grim looking policemen.

"It's a little too late for that ma'am," one of them said, "do you understand your Miranda rights?"

feathergriffin sighes. "Yes sir. But I swear, I haven't missed a disclaimer yet! I'm getting a lawyer! Sorry, folks, there might be a slight delay in the next chapter while I get this cleared up!"

Meanwhile…Tsubasa Kya watches with wide, innocent eyes as she hides behind a convenient bush.

**Lost Enroute to Fate**

_Chapter…Six, Right?_

Koenma looked at his odd crew of spirit detectives. Hiei leaned against the wall of the paper-strangled room, picking at his nails as if he could think of many better things to do than wait for the last member to arrive. Surprisingly it wasn't Yusuke who was late this time. Yusuke was already there, snoring even while standing up. Kuwabara was feeding his new kitten treats--there would be no separation between Kuwabara and his miniature "Yukina-chan," according to Kuwabara. Instead of Yusuke being late, it was Kurama and that worried Koenma a little bit.

Granted, it was far after midnight in the Human world, so Koenma probably should just excuse the tardiness, but he generally didn't promote "tardiness" amongst his subordinates. 'Not that they'd agree to my calling them subordinates,' he thought wryly, chewing his pacifier irritably.

"Well, I don't want to wait any longer." Koenma stated finally. He handed Botan three copies of the same manila folder. In turn, she passed them to each of the present three spirit detectives with a smile. According to the spirit world employment regulations, George had off on weekends so Botan was filling in. Botan shook Yusuke awake gently.

"The folders you now have in your possession are your new mission. We've been having some strange disappearing acts taking place at this shrine; the people we send in to investigate the disappearance of a girl four years ago keep going missing. I suspected demon involvement from the beginning."

They opened the folders--Kuwabara doing so with slight difficulty because of the kitten in his arms--and saw pictures and paperwork. There were photos of a girl who looked no older than five and a tall man with very long black hair and brown eyes. A woman with curly hair held a snot-faced young boy while the man held the little girl. The man and woman seemed to be joking about something with the little girl. They were standing in the courtyard of what looked to be a shrine, with an old, angered man rushing toward them with a piece of paper.

"That man there might have been the cause of the disappearances, but he disappeared himself thirteen years ago. His daughter, the little girl in the photo, and the young girl in the next photo--" he was talking about the fifteen year old picture of the little girl that was also in the file "--was the one who disappeared four years ago. She reappeared periodically and to this day her family continues to claim that she has just been sick, or at least that is the excuse they give her school."

"Why are you investigating this?" Yusuke asked sleepily, a yawn escaping him. "If it's...just a sick girl... what do you need us for?"

Koenma ground his teeth into his pacifier and Botan hastened to reply, "Because sick girls' auras don't vanish for weeks at a time."

"Well, that makes sense," Kuwabara said in agreement. "I mean, Yukina-chan has been teaching me all about auras and how to sense them better. She said that only the dead's aura disappears completely."

"That's right," Koenma nodded. He was glad that Kuwabara was learning from Yukina. It made him more valuable to the team. A big asset. "And then, one of our spies came back. They hadn't been coming back before, but he did and he managed to say 'The return of the Kagemusha,' just before dying."

Hiei stared at the picture with a frown on his face. Koenma noticed that Hiei had more interest in the picture than his normal attention. Did he know something Koenma didn't?

But Yusuke grumbled, "So you'll send us into a possibly extremely dangerous situation just to sate your curiosity?"

"No!" Koenma said irritably. "But if a Kagemusha is coming, then I want to know about it yesterday!"

"What the hell is a Kagemusha anyway?" Yusuke demanded. He'd never heard the term before.

Hiei was the one to respond, strangely enough. He barely ever joined the discussions. "It is a shadow warrior. A very important one, generally powerful enough to level this city with minimal effort…" Everyone was looking at Hiei and he shrugged. "I met one once. She could be considered clinically insane."

"Coming from a guy that tried to turn the world into walking zombie-slaves…" Koenma grumbled.

"It's true." Hiei shrugged. "Except I don't suffer for it…" A rather sinister smile spread across his features, sending shivers up and down the spines of the others.

Yusuke stuffed the folder under his arm in annoyance. He'd learned long ago not to toss the files at Koenma. The last time he did that was just before the Dark Tournament and the next thing he knew he was fighting to win a competition he didn't want to be in. "Keh. Whatever. We'll look into it, and if we find anything worth mentioning, maybe we'll tell you."

Of course, Yusuke was usually the only one who ever ended up telling about the successes or failures of the missions to Koenma. Hiei couldn't care less and the only reason he ever tagged along was so he didn't have to go to jail. Kuwabara didn't like being singled out and Kurama also didn't seem to care more or less if a mission passed or failed, as long as he lived through it.

Koenma knew that was as much as he'd get from them. "Fine. Botan, you go ahead and send them back. Then go look in the archives for anything you can on this man. I know I've seen him somewhere."

Botan nodded and opened a portal for them before waving to them in departure and exiting through the room door to the hall.

On the other side of the portal, Yusuke yawned widely. "I don't know about you guys," he said, "but I'm bushed! Yukina's training is almost as bad as Genkai's."

"Yukina-chan's not an old hag, though!" Kuwabara stated with blind love shining in his eyes.

Hiei's eyes narrowed, and his mouth fell into a frown.

To avoid the subject of Yukina, Yusuke hastily said, "I'm going to go home. We can all meet at the shrine tomorrow at noon. And let's not tell Kurama about this mission; at least he can enjoy the next few days."

Hiei nodded slightly in acknowledgement to both Yusuke's diversion tactic and to his statement and left, walking away in a different direction, opposite of Yusuke's and Kuwabara's. He wanted to take a look at this shrine before tomorrow, and night would be the best time.

Yusuke looked at Kuwabara with annoyance. "You're an idiot and you're gonna get yourself killed." He told the orange haired boy with the kitten.

Kuwabara nuzzled the kitten's nose with his own. "Yukina-chan, you're so cute!" he said, blatantly ignoring Yusuke.

"Whatever," Yusuke grumbled and walked off in the direction of his mama's apartment.

"He just doesn't understand," Kuwabara said comfortingly to his kitten, "I love you. Yusuke must have been a rat or dog in his former life 'cause he just doesn't appreciate you."

Kurama, meanwhile, was listening to Keiko's rather elaborate explanation about her conversations and observations with and of Kagome.

If it wasn't about Kagome, he would have already have made an excuse and gone to his meeting with Koenma. However, though he hadn't seen Kagome in ages, they had been very close as children and Kurama did not like thinking about Kagome going down the wrong path.

"Keiko, I really appreciate you telling me this, but what do you expect me to do about it? I can't go over to my aunt's house and watch her all the time," he said.

"I know that," Keiko said, "but I was thinking we could get her to come visit here for a while. You could keep an eye on her, and find out what she's hiding."

Kurama thought about it a moment. "That is actually a good idea. I'll talk to mother about it tomorrow. I wouldn't want to go barging in trying to convince her at this hour."

Keiko blushed, and twisted her shirt a little. "I'm sorry! But I was worried, and I know that," but she was interrupted.

"I know it, and I really appreciate you telling me. I was supposed to go meet with Koenma, but as he hasn't sent Botan after me I guess it's a smaller case and they don't need me. I'll start trying to figure out the details, and you can go home. If Yusuke hears about you coming over this late at night," and Kurama trailed of pointedly.

Keiko jumped a little. "Oh, right! I'll just be going now!" Suddenly, Keiko was gone. Kurama would have smiled, but he was too busy trying to figure out what was wrong with Kagome. Maybe he should go see if he could find out about this 'Inuyasha'.

Kagome sighed. She was just sitting down to dinner with her family and things were almost normal. Souta had apparently been up in his room playing games with his friends when she came home, so he missed the entire segment where Kagome met Sesshoumaru and he turned out to be her dad. Now that Sesshoumaru was trapped in some book world, she almost felt that justice had been served.

He could have at least told her she would meet him five hundred years ago, which at the same time of not making sense, did make sense if she really thought about it.

Inuyasha was also there with her, sitting at the table and blushing furiously. She figured he was probably thinking of the--very few--times they had kissed. Like the time that he'd been transforming and she'd kissed him to stop it.

Kagome smiled a little. "Uncle Inu, would you pass me the wasabi?"

Inuyasha, unused to being called "uncle" by her especially, jumped at the title. "What the fu--" he changed the word he'd been about to use as Kagome's mother Ai glared at him darkly. She did not like swears, and Souta was VERY impressionable. "Why would I do that?" he grouched, shoving food in his mouth with as much manners as he'd learned in the wilderness.

Souta and his friend--who had stayed for dinner--gaped at Inuyasha. Then Souta grinned brightly, "Man! Inu-onii-san is my UNCLE!" he cackled, secretly amused because he'd known of Kagome's affection for the hanyou. Because Souta's friend was over, Inuyasha was wearing a bandana on his head though such contraptions at the table were deemed rude. It was just as well that the family was very lax in their standards.

"Souta, your family is weird!" Souta's friend Hokoru said under his breath, though everyone could hear it even with Ojii-san grumbling tales of demons. "He's not even OLD and he's got white hair..."

"It's not white!" Inuyasha huffed. "It's SILVER."

Hokoru retorted, "My great-great aunt used to say that too, then she died!"

"He went prematurely gray," Kagome said, trying to cover up the fact Inuyasha was a demon along with her laughter.

"I already said it's silver!" Inuyasha protested.

"Now now, children." Ai hushed.

"How OLD are you anyway, old man?" Hokoru asked in a snipped tone.

Inuyasha looked like he'd love nothing more than to hit the boy, though the table did not warrant for it without some intense acrobatic skills and a rubber arm. "I'll have you know I'm only eighty-si--"

Ai hastily corrected him, "He's only in his early twenties." She was converting human years to demon years, of course.

But Hokoru wrinkled his nose. "Eighties sounds like it more!"

"Kid, if you don't shut up now!" Inuyasha half growled.

The door to the kitchen slammed open, startling them all. A furious looking man with silver hair and tattoos on his face stood in the door. "...Ai..."

Something seemed out of place on his person...

Kagome couldn't stifle the giggle. He was wearing a suit and tie now, and his collar was bent up, the whiteness smudged with ripe red lipstick. His face was covered in the strange substance too.

Souta chirped, "Dad!" Then he paused. "Dad, are you cheating on mama?" Apparently by the way Souta seemed familiar with Sesshoumaru, Sesshoumaru must have been around for the past four years while Kagome was in the past. Which meant he disappeared when she was around. Which meant he'd been avoiding her. Which irked her to no end that her 'father' would do that.

Ai had to stuff her fist in her mouth to stop from laughing. Her eyes were twinkling with tears of mirth.

"You landed in that world, didn't you?" Ai's eyes were shining with suppressed laughter.

"I'm so very close to exploding with severe irritation that it's not even funny." He closed his eyes and appeared to be trying to stop breathing all together and that would stop his heavy, heady breathing. "Why, why did my wife have to be obsessed with romance books of all things?" he muttered under his breath.

"I thought you enjoyed some of the things I get out of those stories. You've admitted as much several times," Ai said, smiling, "Though I would like it if you wiped the lipstick, dear, it's really not your color."

Hokoru was looking from between Ai to Sesshoumaru. Then he said, "Cool, you're dad's got tattoos, Souta!"

Souta grinned. "I know! Isn't it awesome? Hey, mama, can we be excused? We're meeting Chiko and Tomo at the movies!" Adolescent love...

Kagome couldn't take it anymore. Looking at Sesshoumaru's irritated face, it was strange. It seemed so... light... after what she'd seen three weeks before when she'd nearly been decapitated for merely such a small thing as accidentally stumbling upon his bathing glory-- Don't think like that, Kagome, she warned herself.

"All right, that's it! Start acting normal again! Like the Sesshoumaru I used to know!" she said rather loudly, pushing away from the table as she stood up and pointed a finger at Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru looked suddenly taken aback at her outburst, but he wasn't the only one. Even Ojii-san had stopped muttering and stared with wide eyes. "Kagome..." Ojii-san said in a whisper that everyone heard.

Determined not to let everyone get involved, Ai said, "Souta, you and your friend are free." The two boys looked now like they wanted to stay but one look at Ai's face said 'stay and be reprimanded'. They darted off. Ojii-san made some excuse of polishing his artifacts and wandered off.

Ai grabbed Inuyasha's arm. "Come. It is time for you to return through the well. I will seal it myself."

Sesshoumaru stared openly at Kagome, both proud and not with her. Only Ai had ever had the guts to stand up to him. When Kagome was little, she always agreed with every thing he said, never considering other options to exist.

Inuyasha was dragged out of the room, though his yelling and protesting could be heard for a long time afterwards.

Kagome sat down, running her hand through her hair. "I'm sorry, it's just been a long day, and three weeks ago you seemed ready to gut me cause I accidentally fell over the cliff into the hot spring while you were bathing, and now, and the day I've had, and," her voice trailed off.

Kagome looked up at him. "And you've visited while I was away, didn't you? Souta was too young when you left to have already made him comfortable with calling you dad. Why didn't you tell me? I could have kept a secret." Her eyes, big and watery, were having a serious effect on Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru went to shove his hands in his pockets but the realized that he didn't have any pockets anymore. Damn slacks. "Inuyasha." he said, as if the answer would be simple and obvious.

"Inuyasha what?" Kagome asked.

Sesshoumaru shook his head as he instead started pulling the tie off. He then began to undo the buttons of his jacket and the cuffs of his sleeves. "His nose. He would have smelled me on you. I'm lucky he didn't smell me on Souta and Ai as it was. We've never been on proper terms, and I'm rather impressed at his will not to attempt to kill me right now—not that he could."

Kagome's shoulders slumped. "I guess. It's not fair, though. I've missed you."

Sesshoumaru looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'd completely forgotten that you'd seen me naked that day." He chuckled. "That was the first moment I realized that you were the Kagemusha the Book of the Prophets had talked of--consequently, also my daughter. I wasn't mad that day--simply embarrassed."

"So you show your love by nearly strangling me to death?" She nearly shrieked, strangely disgusted by his affection. Demons were so weird.

"Um, well, yeah." Sesshoumaru said, in response to her cry of alarm. "Granted, I was young then. I'd hoped for a brief moment that if I could kill you, then you couldn't possibly be my daughter. But my hand froze, and fury gripped me when the humans came for the jewel that was MY DAUGHTER's."

Kagome stood abruptly from the seat she'd fallen into. She glared at him, not comforted very much. Her dad was an extremely gorgeous male, a youkai, and she'd fantasized of him many times in secret after meeting him in the past. How could she have forgotten his face? Why wouldn't she have known him when she saw him in the past? Where was the murderous intent he'd often held in his eyes? Why did her father turn out to be him?

"Excuse me." She hissed, bowing stiffly to him in a mockery of the king he used to be, and she stalked toward the patio door leading out of the house.

She needed some fresh air. Seriously. This was almost overwhelming.

His voice stopped her hand from flipping the lock only momentarily. "Kagome... be careful. Someone has been sending demons to the shrine for four years now. All of them are weak, but eventually they won't be. I didn't give you permission to die."

"I wasn't aware I needed permission from a father who was never there..." she whispered callously before stepping out into the night.

Sesshoumaru winced slightly. He didn't really have any reply to that. He might have to start diplomatic relations with his own daughter.

Translated into normal father terms, his daughter would have to be bribed.

Outside, Ai was having an almost as difficult time. "I ain't goin' back! You can't make me!" Inuyasha was holding onto the top of the well, refusing to be pushed in. Outside, a frustrated and upset Kagome decided to save her friend (and uncle).

Kagome stepped into the small well house. "Mother..." She'd never called Ai "mother" before. It had always been "mama". But Kagome was furious at her apparently non-existent father now.

Ai looked up, and Inuyasha took the chance to get up and leap behind Kagome, who put her hands on her hips. "Mama, you can't force him to go back now! It's his choice, and even then you did it without giving him a chance to say goodbye to everyone!"

Ai frowned. "Kagome, you know he can't stay here! Aside from the fact that he BELONGS in the past, your father would never allow for it."

"Does dad even remember seeing him again in the past?!" Kagome said. "And that doesn't excuse the fact you didn't even let him say goodbye!"

Inuyasha smartly kept his mouth shut, realizing that he would be no help to the situation and the rosary around his neck still presented a problem. With Kagome this mad, she was bound to take her temper out on something, and he might be that something.

Ai whispered softly, "He has to go back, Kagome. There is no point in drawing out long goodbyes..." She stepped around Kagome, every inch of her face lined in her barely contained temper. "He had best be gone by the time I wake in the morning. If he is not, I will not be pleased with you." Her mother always woke at dawn.

Kagome glared at her mother. "Whatever," she mumbled, "come on, Inuyasha," and she turned and left the shrine, leaving her mother speechless at Kagome's ill manners.

'Ello ev'rybody. Uh, I guess... it's just me, TK, here now... um, Feather's been detained and incarcerated for copyright infringement... I guess... it's up to me to be the poster-girl. _Not_ that kind of poster-girl... Just review and remind me to post, or I'll forget... Thanks a lot!


	7. Chapter 7

**Warning: this chapter is largely unedited, so the POV may change randomly. In most places you will be able to note who you are reading about immediately. Eventually Feather and I will get around to fixing it, but probably only if she insists upon it. **

_Disclaimer: Hey, this is TK everyone. Feather is no longer being detained for copyright infringement, but she does seem to have a computer issue so I'm still in charge of this update. (Dang it) Since she has that computer issue, this chapter hasn't been edited so what you see here is 1st draft copy (mainly due to the fact that I am lazy). Both Feather and I would like to extend our gratitude for all the loving, supportive reviews we've gotten for this story, and if Feather isn't too upset at me for updating an unedited chapter, then maybe eventually I'll update again. The extreme length of this chapter goes to the fact that I couldn't find a good cutoff sooner than where it is (TK is wildly known for her 1k chapters). Enjoy chapter seven! Then, when you're done reading, please leave us a review. Sincerely, TK. _

Chapter Seven

Inuyasha followed her, both curious as to what Sesshoumaru had said to make her so mad and knowing that there was a strong approaching demonic aura; which likely meant that in her fury she overlooked it and it was probably coming for the jewel. That sucked. His night sucked. If only saying something wouldn't end in a likely 'sit' command...

Ai, meanwhile, went to confront her husband and was very surprised to find him in their bedroom, preparing for bed and looking silent, masking his face like he used to when they first met.

"What's wrong?" Ai asked him.

Sesshoumaru glanced at her, then back at his preparations. He didn't say anything.

Ai sighed deeply. "That went well, didn't it?" she asked, sarcasm thick in her voice.

"My daughter begrudges me." he muttered finally.

"We knew it wouldn't be easy for her," Ai said.

"I know..." he sighed and lay back on the pillow, not covering up. "But you got to see her, talk to her... I couldn't even watch her grow, even though I was just down the road pretty much... And I know she doesn't believe me about the Book of the Prophets. She's likely laughing about it now."

"I doubt it," Ai said grimly, "she's off with Inuyasha, saying goodbye. She came out and yelled at me for trying to push him down the well. And she's mad at me too, if that makes you feel any better," she continued, changing into something more comfortable to sleep in.

"Not really. By the way, did you think to send your little friend Touya off to chaperone Souta?" He wrinkled his nose. How Ai had came across and brought Touya the Ice Ninja into her service, he wasn't sure though he wasn't sure he really WANTED to know either. He hoped his wife wasn't cheating on him, though as he couldn't read minds he would have to trust her unless further proof was provided—which he was also not willing to go find or have found.

"Oh, shoot," Ai said.

"You didn't?" Sesshoumaru sat up hastily. "He's a damn Prince, Ai!" he didn't raise his voice, but he did scowl.

Unfortunately, in his entire time knowing her, she'd never been intimidated by his tactics. Not many could say that about themselves.

Inuyasha asked, "Um, Kagome? Where are we going?" They'd passed the mall he'd found her at already, gratefully. He didn't want to see the gay guy again. A shiver went down his spine at the very thought.

Kagome looked around, and shrugged her shoulders. "Away," she commented.

"You know, I'm sure Souta can make it for one night alone. Besides, Touya is on a date tonight," Ai said, leaning into her soft pillows with a sigh of relief.

"A date?" Sesshoumaru asked skeptically. "Who in their right mind would..." he paused mid-sentence, sniffing, his cold mask strapping on faster than the fastest speaker could say "the". He reached for his bedside for his sword, then remembered Ai had ordered he keep it in the closet.

Meanwhile, Kagome looked at the movie theater they were passing. "Come on, let's go watch a movie," she commanded.

"A moovee?" Inuyasha asked as he was assaulted with the smells of popcorn, soda, and other confectionary items. "What's a moovee?"

"It's like a play, but one that is taking place behind a see-through screen," Kagome said after thinking for a moment. As she bought tickets, she unknowingly chose the one her brother was at, though considering the rating he shouldn't have been able to get in. But she would find that out later.

"A play? I donno, Kagome. I never really liked them. They bored me and the fight scenes were stupid and fake." Inuyasha sniffed in disdain.

Kagome sniffed. "The last movie that I know about that was that fake was Godzilla. I just want you to promise you won't attack the screen or anything."

"Attack the skreen..." he had difficulty pronouncing the word. "Is it a shadow play?"

"I told you, it is like a play being performed behind a screen, except the screen is see through. Completely see through. So the explosions don't hurt the audience," Kagome said, trying to come up with a reason to not have to explain how people make movies. Rockets had been bad enough.

"Wha—you mean, you're paying to see people die?" he asked incredulously. Then he mused, "I'm not a bad fighter... I could make some money..."

"You have to go back, remember? But maybe you can do that when it gets close to this century again. Just don't act in Godzilla, all right?" she tried to smile, but failed.

Inuyasha frowned thoughtfully but said nothing. Instead he shoved his hands into his haori sleeves, wondering why he was the only one who wore a haori and hakama. Kagome was still in her pretty dress, though it was a little dusty.

Inuyasha had to admit to himself; he didn't trust Sesshoumaru in this time any more than the one in his time. He didn't want to leave Kagome here alone with him. Inuyasha was the only one strong enough to defeat Sesshoumaru!

"Come on, down this row. Good, we got a seat in the middle," she said.

Inuyasha tried to sit on the seat as easily as Kagome, but frustratingly it would not bend to his will. "Hey, Kagome, I think this chair is broken. It's bent up." he muttered.

Kagome giggled, and stood up. She pushed the seat back, and then down. "See?" she said brightly. Inuyasha blushed, and sat down after putting his seat down. He looked up at the screen. Weird things were going across the screen. Drink Pepsi? What was that? What kind of play was this?

He peeked over at Kagome. She didn't seem to notice anything wrong, and he decided to not embarrass himself, and keep watching.

Ai asked her husband with a frown, "What is it NOW? I swear, you've been so edgy the last four years, and you can't say it's because of Kagome."

"Another demon," Sesshoumaru said tersely, and left out the window.

"Wait, hon!" Ai sighed and rubbed her temple. "I swear, in his silk pajamas. If he ruins them, I will never buy silk for him again! He could have at least changed."

Sesshoumaru looked around the shrine, sniffing the air. His eyes narrowed. What was he doing here? "I know you're there. Come out!"

Hiei sighed, leaning against the Goshinboku. "What a disappointment... I thought I'd find the girl and be done with it, but she's not even here."

"What are you doing here?" Sesshoumaru questioned coldly, "And what do you want with my daughter?" He wasn't on bad terms with the Forbidden One, exactly, but if he was working with whoever was sending out those other demons, then, well, that was his fault.

Hiei tossed the file at Sesshoumaru's feet. "That's why I am here." he said.

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow, and picked up the folder. He flipped through it quickly, and his eyes quickly narrowed. "Koenma's the reason for all the demons?" he asked, as confirmation. He and King Enma had a deal, and privacy for him and his was definitely part of it.

If that was broken, then...

"Koenma's investigating your apparently 'sick' daughter. According to the file, she's even come down with Parvovirus twice. Not surprising, however, considering you are a mutt." Hiei smirked, still relaxed, but obviously ready should he need to be. He never had any intent of hiding and had stood by the tree the entire time.

Sesshoumaru, having confirmed that Hiei was going to side with him on this one, relaxed slightly. "What are you doing with that incompetent, anyways?" he asked.

Hiei shrugged slightly. "Unfortunately I killed a few humans too many. The other option was being put in a cozy cell in the most comfortable Dungeon of Torture. Been there, done that, didn't like it, and would rather not return." Hiei looked at Sesshoumaru, one dark crimson eye glowing, the other hidden in shadow.

"Haven't done enough community service by now?" Sesshoumaru said.

"I guess it would have been, except I wandered into the Makai without permission to release some frustration. That appears frowned upon." He looked at his bandaged forearm.

"So first they want you to kill demons, and when you decided to do it on your own, you are punished?" Sesshoumaru asked, his tone conveying disbelief.

"Has Koenma ever been able to make his mind up?" Hiei mused, flexing his clawed fingers. "According to that file, us dogs of Koenma are supposed to bring your daughter to him. I take it you won't allow for that quietly?"

"Obviously. I have a proposition for you," Sesshoumaru said. After all, if Ai could somehow convince Touya to watch over Souta, then why couldn't he do something similar with Hiei?

Hiei smirked. "A proposition for me? The Forbidden One? How delightful; do enlighten me on this, King of Mutts."

Sesshoumaru simply smiled and continued ignoring the offensive term. "Koenma was right, you know. My daughter is the prophesized Kagemusha. You know what she's going to do. Wouldn't you like to be able to influence that in some way?"

"Influence the Kagemusha?" Hiei raised one eyebrow, that smirk still in place. His curiosity was perked now; the Kagemushaes were all famed for only following their own influence—they would do their task how they wanted to, when they wanted to, and for their own reasons. "I'm listening..." he breathed.

"I would have begun training her already, but I couldn't, for I knew part of her future was in the past, _my past_. Kagome has already fulfilled part of her destiny, as the miko Kagome that defeated Naraku five hundred years ago. However, her journeys in the past with my idiot half-brother have not succeeded in bringing her levels to what is necessary." Sesshoumaru ran a hand through his hair, almost impatient with himself.

Continuing on, he stated, "She only has her abilities with a bow and arrows, and the slight training she has gotten so far from myself when she was too young to remember me that well, and the small amount her friends have been giving her since the jewel was completed. She might be a Kagemusha, but she doesn't have the abilities yet to take up that office. You could train her, and thus gain her respect and loyalty. My daughter has a rather over-developed sense of loyalty."

Sesshoumaru stopped, knowing he needed to give Hiei a chance to think.

Hiei mulled this over carefully, his eyes half-lidded. When he finally spoke, he said, "And what of my apparent duties to Koenma? If I am seen lingering around this place to train her, which of course does not mean I am agreeing to do so, then my own 'loyalty' however non-existent is going to be challenged. They will assume I am turning to your banner." He tilted his head in very slight acknowledgment to Sesshoumaru's royal bloodline, though it managed to be mocking at the same time.

"I believe Ai is planning to send Kagome to visit her cousin soon, Shuichi Minamino, my grandson. She should be able to sneak away and spend some time with you there, and you wouldn't be anywhere near me," Sesshoumaru stated.

Hiei's eyebrows went nearly to his hairline as he heard that name but he said nothing to it. "Why would you think to recruit me, the Forbidden One, for this task which you are capable of doing yourself now?"

"King Enma made an agreement with me. He also broke it. That cannot go without consequences, and I shall not have time. Do you really wish to continue working for King Enma's brat for the rest of your demonic life with them jumping on every little detail so that they can continue to extend your sentence? Besides, my daughter isn't really suited to my style of fighting." Sesshoumaru kept his other reason to himself.

Sesshoumaru didn't think Kagome would appreciate his teaching methods while he was also trying to become a part of her life once more. That was going to be hard enough, especially while trying to educate Koenma. Besides, Hiei was trustworthy, in his way, and it was hard to see a fellow demon, especially as strong as Hiei was, forced into such a position. He wouldn't even want see something like that happen to Inuyasha, let alone someone he respected.

Hiei frowned. "Here's another question for you. What do I get from this? Simple satisfaction in assisting the Kagemusha isn't good enough for me." His face was unreadable after a moment, his mask even better than Sesshoumaru's had ever been. His eyes didn't speak: Sesshoumaru's always had spoke volumes of what he felt.

"After this is over, King Enma and his son are going to be begging me to ask them to do things. Letting you free is minor. For another, I'm sure you wouldn't mind Yukina being someplace where you wouldn't have to watch over her constantly. No demon, human, or half-demon has ever breached my wards at my home in Makai. She wouldn't be required to do anything, and you would be free, within reason, to hover over her unseen anytime you wished. She has already been kidnapped while you weren't watching, and with you away on assignments you won't be able to keep watching her. I'm sure it would be a relief to have her safe."

This sounded good to Hiei, but he knew she wouldn't go now. She had grown 'fond' of Kuwabara without Hiei's permission. Emotions still unreadable, he said icily, "She has taken up residence at the Spiritualist Genkai's residence and Koenma contracted her aid last month. She trains the other dogs on things in her knowledge now. She is not ALLOWED to leave the confines of the shrine there."

Sesshoumaru raised his eyebrows. "All I need to do is give some kind of clue towards "her brother's" whereabouts. Then when Yukina disappears, they will simply assume that she has gone to follow up. She will, but I will be offering my services in aiding her in searching for her brother. She will have the entire run of the library there, though, unfortunately, the documents she is seeking is, in my private library here, and no one has access to it. My library is sufficiently big enough that it will occupy her for long after this episode is over."

Hiei shook his head. "No." he said. "I do not want her in the Makai unless I can be there and while in Koenma's employ I cannot go there without adding a few years to my sentence. If you can get Koenma to release her into your, uh, care... then I will do as you ask. I do not want her working for Koenma. She does not know how moronic that brat is."

"You wish for her to be relocated here?" Sesshoumaru wished to clarify the particulars before they closed the deal.

"Yes. You have two priestesses, yourself, and the barrier around here. Innumerable traps—whichh by the way you may want to reset—and that half-mutt. This is not mentioning the fact that those under your banner are never too far from here, surrounding the place like your moon symbol. Your defense is ALMOST virtually impenetrable, though I do recall a certain fox managing to get in about twenty or so years ago... She would be reasonably safe here."

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed. "Do not mention that fox again. I suppose I could convince her to come here. Maybe that Touya could offer to help her with her ice magic."

"You have the Ice Ninja from the Dark Tournament in your employ?" Hiei asked, mildly surprised at that.

"My mate managed it, and that's all you need to know," Sesshoumaru said. Under his breath, he continued, "And apparently all I need to know."

Hiei smirked. He'd heard that. "Does it feel good to have a collar?" he asked. "I am particularly grateful that no one cares for the Forbidden One. I will never be bound as one such as yourself has been." He pushed away from the tree, tilted his head in a mock imitation of a bow, and disappeared as if he'd never been there.

Sesshoumaru smirked. He knew very well that Hiei would have heard it. It didn't hurt to allow people under his employ feel a bit superior. And besides, he remembered the stories his father had read from the Book of the Prophets, and a certain verse concerning the Forbidden One.

Sesshoumaru opened the file once more as he made his way back into the warm confines of his wife's shrine. Hiei had written a note to him. "The dogs will come at noon." it said. That was it, and while he was sure from his conversation with Hiei 'the dogs' mean Koenma's pet detectives, he was confused about the noon part. It was obviously a time, but what day? Tomorrow--or literally speaking would be 'today' but... Were they coming here tomorrow to look for Kagome? Koenma must have gone mad to breach the agreement his father had made with Sesshoumaru.

"Kagome this is boring." Inuyasha grumbled as another commercial blazed "Pepsi" across the screen. "I'm bored with this moovee." Then the screen went black. "It broke! Can we go now?" Inuyasha asked.

"No, hush!" Kagome said. "It's starting!"

Inuyasha opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly this black haired, funny looking figure came onto the screen. He was fighting with a panda, and when he fell into the pond, he turned into a girl! Other, odder things happened, and by the time the commercial was over, telling him to buy Ranma 1/2, season two, he was completely confused.

Then there was the theatrical trailer for "Marcus theaters" and finally the opening credits.

Dark and forbidding music played loudly as a narrator spoke in a mystical voice, "Mao the Third of Api, had once played her violin on the sea shore. Until one day the sea rose up and took her captive.

"Our story begins when the Wolf Prince found her several miles downstream near his mountainous lands, washed up and half dead."

Kagome gasped as visions flashed across the screen like strobe lights, ones of a young maiden playing her violin and of an angry sea, ones of dangerous blue eyes and ones of battle. This promised to be as gory as the warning was: Not suitable for children under 17. Parental guidance strongly suggested.

The movie started out with sailing clouds, then out of the clouds there was the angry ocean, and then under the ocean was a woman entombed in liquid, struggling toward the surface yet trying to hug the violin she was only half-heartedly trying to hold.

As the movie progressed, Inuyasha began to growl. The 'wolf prince' turned out to be Kouga.

'I'm not leaving through the well,' he decided. 'Ever.'

Inuyasha looked ready to spring at the screen, to rip it apart and find Kouga behind it.

"Oh, wow! It's Kouga-kun!" Kagome breathed. Inuyasha growled only louder hearing the name said aloud. She swatted his arm. "Relax or else ruin the last of the time you have with me!"

"That bastard..." Inuyasha growled as the movie progressed. First things would get bloody and admittedly the fights looked very real. Then it would slow to a crawl and Kouga was - uh - mating with this Mao person.

Inuyasha was completely red from head to foot, enough so that his robes of the fire rat would be put to shame soon. Kagome was engrossed in the movie, apparently moved by some unknown reason by everything. He himself didn't understand what was so great about it. Anything that had to do with Kouga was bad, bad, bad.

Then there was more bloodshed and gore in which seemed to be some fight over Mao; a demon from the sea or something wanted Mao but now Kouga wouldn't give her up. So then there were scenes of war with the water demons summoned by the sea king, and the wolves fought. By the end of the movie, Inuyasha had his face in his hands and his hands on his knees, embarrassed by the stupidity of it all.

Kagome was swooning romantically, tears on the verge of falling from her eyes. "Oh, Kouga-kun, you're such a great actor!" she said as the final credits waned.

Inuyasha sat up and gave her an incredulous look as the lights came on. "What the fuck are you talking about wench?" She didn't respond to the probe, instead stood up holding clasped hands over her breast, her chin on her knuckles.

"Oh, Kouga-kun, you're so...so..." She trailed off as her eyes focused on something farther in the front of the theater.

Sudden anger pitted forth from her belly. Inuyasha thought the anger was directed at him, but her eyes were on two other people in the theater. Her fists shook in rage. 'He's only fifteen!' she scowled as she clamored over the seats just to get out faster and over to him. It seemed it only managed to make the trip slower than if she'd actually waited for the crowd to thin and gone around.

Once she stood behind him, her raging aura like invisible flames around her that only a fool could miss, she said in a low voice, "Sooouta..."

He stiffened. "Er, I'm not Souta," a fake male voice came from the figure in front of her. Kagome was not fooled.

"Higurashi, Souta, you are in so much trouble! When mama finds out you went to see this movie without even asking permission!" Kagome said sternly as people around her snickered. Inuyasha personally thought that this was a much better show than the moovee.

"She might have even let you come! But now! March with me, young man, and you, young woman, does your mother know where you are?" Kagome said sternly as a shame-faced Souta slumped besides his girlfriend.

'Kissing!' Kagome scowled deeply. 'Mama will see the lipstick smears, and the hickies, and if he magically can wisp them away I'll make sure mama knows what he did!' she thought venomously. She mostly felt cheated because her teen years weren't rebellious like his. Instead she had to go off saving the world, which wasn't all that fun with the threat of impending doom every few steps.

The girl looked at Souta, then Kagome, and decided, "Um, I'll see you in school tomorrow, So-kun..." she said lowly, thinking Kagome's hearing wasn't as acute as it felt now. Kagome heard and felt like shaking them both senseless--or senseful, she couldn't figure out which.

Then the girl practically ran away. Hokoru was no where to be seen, but she had no doubt he'd been there.

"Kagome, you just embarassed me in front of my friends and my girlfriend?! How could you?!" Souta yelled, his spirit flaring up.

"How could you sneak into an X rated movie?" she challenged, glaring down at the as-yet seated boy. "X rated, Souta, X! X for EXPLICIT. Material not meant for YOU! Just wait till mama finds out. You won't be seeing Hokoru, OR THAT GRIMY GIRL anymore!" If Kagome had to lose Inuyasha--one of her closest friends these days though they did fight--Souta could suffer too...

Share the love, she thought...

"You're just mad 'cause Inuyasha's has to go back, and because he's your uncle and you can't fall in love with him and have lots of babies like you wanted!" Souta yelled back at her.

Kagome felt like being extremely irrational at the moment and her mind seemed to evaporate to the wind. She grabbed his shirt and hauled him to his feet, her Higurashi-temper flaring so much that even the humans had evacuated for fear of being suffocated. "Say. That. Again." she said. She had made her peace with Inuyasha about that; it was losing him completely with the well sealing that disturbed her so greatly. Of course, Souta didn't know that, but her anger-struck mind didn't supply that information either.

"I said you're mad! Not only that, but you're jealous that I have a girlfriend, and all you got is your Uncle Inuyasha who has to go through the well soon!" Souta said. He, too, had inherited his mother's temper, and he had gone far past the point of reasonable thinking.

Of course, Inuyasha was beyond confused. What did all this have to do with him? He hadn't DONE anything wrong, at least not that he could recall. And the siblings were starting to act like Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha acted. 'They're growing up,' he thought proudly, thinking this was healthy behavior.

Kagome released her brother's shirt and balled her fist. "Take it back," she warned him. She would only say it once, and if her word was not complied with, she would just slug him. Yes, it sounded like a good plan of action.

Souta shrugged inwardly, still high on his anger. He was already in so much trouble for what he had done, why not take it one step further. He smirked, and said, "No, and you can't make me," he was abruptly shut up when Kagome pulled her fist back and hit him in the face hard enough to unbalance him.

"You ungrateful, lousy, rat-faced, bug-eyed cretin!" She felt something in her snap, like an uncoiling of a spring that had been waiting to be set free. She snapped into position and kicked out with her foot, hitting him squarely in the gut and on contact there was a bright pink flash. A footprint was burned out of his shirt and he actually tumbled all the way down the row to slump against the wall.

Sesshoumaru raised his head, wakening from a deep sleep. His tie to his daughter allowed him to sense changes in her aura. "Shit," he muttered, and disappeared from his bedroom.

Ai stirred only briefly before falling asleep again, stealing his pillow and half of the blankets as she did so.

Souta growled almost with inhuman rage as he held his stomach and got to his feet. One of his eyes had flashes of gold in it, which was odd since he was supposed to be human, wasn't he?

Inuyasha was sitting still, watching the entertainment with fascination. It was almost as exciting as his own sibling fights.

"Souta, you just had to go and say it, didn't you," Kagome growled. Her fists were held up in front of her, and she was advancing on Souta as he wiped blood off his face, an equally pissed off look on his face.

Souta stepped forward, greeting the challenge she offered. "I said it and I don't regret it a bit. Girl or not, sister or not, I'm gonna kick your ass." He charged her with an upraised fist.

"Brother, I don't care if you're a stupid teenager who doesn't know any better. You need a serious lesson in respect, and I guess I'm the one to give it too you." Kagome said. A moment later, the two siblings had collided into a furious fight. Fists and feet were flying, and Inuyasha could swear he heard growling from both parties.

That was exactly when the police showed up to break up the fight. Having never left his seat, Inuyasha wasn't cuffed, and it took several men to hold down the raging siblings. Humans, being humans of course, were stunned to find that the metal cuffs they put on Souta rusted away to nothing and the metal cuffs on Kagome just seemed to shatter. They kept trying to get at each other as if they'd gone berserk and could only see each other.

Then, Sesshoumaru arrived. By the time Sesshoumaru arrived, half of that theater room was destroyed, "acidized" or purified to smoking or broken remains.

While not being widely known, Sesshoumaru had made sure he had made some important connections in the police department. He talked with the police for a moment, in which the police's representative had gone pale, and soon Sesshoumaru's men were taking over from the departing policemen.

Touya was there, having come back from his date, and after the humans had left he encased the sibling in ice which slowed them down...slightly.

But unfortunately it didn't do good for long. Their hot tempers melted the ice as quick as their seeming inborn powers did. Souta seemed to leak poison that evaporated the ice and Kagome--blue eyes raging--just blasted the ice to chunks that flew every which way, not caring who got hurt. They thrummed with the urge to pummel the other.

Inuyasha stared at Sesshoumaru and almost felt guilty. Should he have stopped it? He probably could have in the beginning...

'Naw,' he thought, 'this is way better than that crappy thing Kouga was in.'

Sesshoumaru waded down to the battlefield amidst broken seats and melted flooring--which by the way he would end up paying to repair, unfortunately. Stupid Higurashi "Curse of the Temper".

He grabbed both of his children by their hair and smacked their heads together with a resounding thump. With that move, they seemed to return to their senses and, looking like scolded children, did not look at each other or Sesshoumaru, though Kagome looked far more angry now than at whatever Souta had said to anger her. However, she was keeping her head which was fine. She could sulk. She had permission.

'He got in the damn way!' She thought angrily, rubbing her head. She didn't feel at all fonder of Sesshoumaru now that he'd stopped their fight.

"What happened? Kagome first," Sesshoumaru demanded.

"What's it to you?" Kagome snapped, finally glaring at him. "You never cared before, why bother starting now?"

"I care because my two children just destroyed a movie theater. That requires an explanation. And I have already explained my reasons about my absence. I will not repeat myself. I did not wish to leave, no matter what you think, Kagome," Sesshoumaru said.

"Oh, so you want to just waltz into my life again after a thirteen year absence?" She laughed harshly, the sound of her own voice unfamiliar to her ears. "I'm sorry if I don't have the lifespan you do and don't see thirteen years as thirteen days."

"I told you I would not repeat myself again. I kept in contact as best I could, considering the circumstances. We can discuss this later, but until then, I demand an explanation," Sesshoumaru said.

"He started it," Kagome finally grumbled out, willing him not to hear but he did anyway.

"Continue," he said, relieved that he wouldn't have to lose any more face before his men, not to mention the more important factor that his daughter, that he had really missed, was starting to bend.

"I did not!" Souta said, his fist clenching. He was showing considerable determination not to rub the wide bruise marking his forehead. "She started it! She attacked me and my girlfriend!"

"You were in an X rated movie without permission! Unlike some people I could mention, I am of age!" Kagome yelled back. "And who knows what you were doing while the movie was playing!" Kagome accused.

"You were probably all sucky faced with Uncle Inu back there!" He motioned to the back of the theater.

Inuyasha was unfamiliar with the terms spoken, but said, "She ignored me the entire time, favoring to stare at that wolf-breath's ugly mug. It was hard enough trying to keep myself from throwing up!" he added, "and besides, we had already decided to just be friends," and he looked over at Kagome, "or actually, brother and sister." he added faintly, flushing slightly.

Kagome was on the verge of attacking again, but the threat looming of having her head knocked once more kept her sane. "And who's the one here with HICKIES all over his damned neck and collar?" she pointed at him accusingly.

"Souta," Sesshoumaru growled.

Souta tensed and shrunk back; over the past four years he'd learned to respect the differences in Sesshoumaru's tones. Now was the time to be very afraid for his skin.

"Um...yes dad?" he tried to sound nonchalant, but failed as his voice emitted as a squeak.

"What did you say to your sister to start," and here he indicated the rather damaged room, "this?" The look on his face said he better tell the truth, and only that.

"I...um..." Souta gulped, quivering slightly. "I..." he couldn't say the truth, as it was so disrespectful he'd probably get the next week of his life learning how to dig holes or perhaps die and be revived by Sesshoumaru's magical swords. He'd actually seen Sesshoumaru use those swords on one of his underlings two years ago. Was it murder if someone didn't remain dead?

"Go ahead, tell him," Kagome snapped, secretly feeling piteous compassion for her brother. He seemed to know of a rage that she did not. At the same time, she was still very angry that he got to know their father and she did not. "Tell him how you practically called me an incestuous whore! That's what set this off, simply because I asked why you were in an X rated movie."

"What?" Sesshoumaru growled.

"That's not what...what I meant...at all..." Souta panicked. He began backing away, terrified, but at the same time he knew that if his father attacked him his body would spring into action and he would FIGHT BACK. Four years had been spent learning under Sesshoumaru's critical eye and it wouldn't go to waste.

"He said," Kagome said, doing a reasonable imitation of a growl, "that the only reason I was mad at him was because he had a girlfriend, and all I had was Inuyasha who turned out to be my uncle, and that I had been hoping to have lots of kids with him and now he had to go back through the well and I'd never see him again." Kagome said. Her aura was starting to flare again, but Sesshoumaru squeezed his hand on her shoulder, and she calmed, though she continued to glare at Souta.

"Wait a minute!" Inuyasha yelped, no longer amused by the display. "Babies? Me? With YOU?" A scowl planted on his face. "That's just wrong on so many levels!" He said, knowing he implied things other than familial relations. He regretted saying it too as she held control over his rosary. He braced himself for impact.

Souta said, "I - I never said any of that!"

"You know, normally, you would be sat, but I agree with you. You better shut up, though," Kagome said in an aside to Inuyasha.

Inuyasha gulped, almost with relief and held his tongue. He quite liked his face out of the dirt, thanks. Or whatever he was standing on.

Sesshoumaru looked from Souta, to Kagome, then back to Souta. "You do remember that I can tell when someone is lying, do you not?" Sesshoumaru asked in a low, cold voice.

Souta finally felt something break, like all the tension and fear inside him snap and ebb away. He was left cold. Everyone was siding against him. It wasn't really his fault...was it? Did he really say those things? Probably, but he was too mad to be truly coherent. Anger was like a pungent alcohol. His shoulders slumped. 'Be a man,' he thought. 'I am a man... I can take punishment...'

"Yes, father, I snuck into an X rated movie with Hokoru and Chiko... I said some nasty things I probably wouldn't have if I wasn't so mad at the time, and yet," his voice sounded as bland to his ears as it felt, and now he looked up at Sesshoumaru with anger, "I find myself wanting to do it again, just to PISS YOU OFF!"

Sesshoumaru rubbed his forehead, suddenly deflating. "It figures," he said to himself, "it's that time."

Souta's left eye was again sparking with gold streamers through his iris. His raging aura was melting things around him and would continue to do so if not contained, but he just clenched his hands and said, "Kagome's right. You were gone for so long, what right did you even have to come walking back? You didn't even have the dignity to crawl." The boy stood, stared at Sesshoumaru for a moment as if daring him to stop him, then stalked around Sesshoumaru toward the emergency exit, taking it to the outside world.

Kagome huffed. "What right does he have to say that? He's had you for the past four years," she said. "Dad, I'm going. Inuyasha is going to leave soon, and I want to spend a few more hours with him. Good luck!" and she walked off, barely giving the destruction around her a second glance. Inuyasha looked around, looked at Sesshoumaru, shrugged, and followed.

Sesshoumaru wanted to groan, or sigh or kick something, but that would be seen as a weakness in front of Touya and the other two men who had come to help break up the fight - and yet they had not lifted a hand. Touya had attempted weakly. They all seemed to want him to take care of it. But then another piece puzzled him; something he'd seen on Souta. His eye. Was Souta somehow both a hanyou and a human with spiritual power? Would his halves begin to battle each other? But did that mean Kagome too could be like that?

He turned to one of the men he'd brought with him. "Have this place cleaned up and make sure none of it leaks to the media. If it does, it will be your heads that roll."

Touya and the other men looked at each other, and gulped. They knew he meant that literally. Touya, however, was bravest, and said, "It shall be handled, sir."

"One of you will need to inform Koenma of this, but I want it done indirectly. I also want the happenings of it to be very skewered, lest he get the RIGHT idea." He turned and walked by them, exiting not through the emergency door but through the normal way.

"This is going to be a long night," one of the men said. The others just nodded, and got to work.

**Please review (so say the Gods of Fanfiction) or be smited (by the Gods of Fanfiction)! **


	8. Chapter 8

Feathergriffin: So...yeah...we're alive...we just sorta forgot about this story...well, okay, I'm alive-we all know TK is alive, because she's been updating. I'm been forced underground, so to speak, updating on another account. Mom doesn't exactly like me writing fanfiction while going to school, so...yeah...

(TK, you can jump in any time now...)

Tsubasa Kya: !! Are you insinuating that I write too many stories there?

Feathergriffin: No...I'm saying that I haven't been...do you have a guilty conscience?

Tsubasa Kya: Guilty? I... shifty eyes. That would imply I have a conscience. Which came defective when I was made.

I suppose that does mean I have one... but it's still broken.

Feathergriffin: You do...it's called your muse...I'm not too sure if it quite has the same priorities as most though.

Tsubasa Kya: Yeah, she seems to be insistent on getting me arrested.

Tsubasa Kya: My mom gave up trying to keep me from writing. In fact, we had a long talk last night...maybe not about fanfiction. Mostly about my grandma and papa and sisters and relationships and personality faults...

Feathergriffin: Ugh...that doesn't sound fun.

Small note: I haven't given up on my feagrif stories, I'm just postponing them for another year. Then I shall update in a grand fashion!

Feathergriffin: Anyways, to make up for our forgetfulness, we've decided to give you a humongous chapter. And we've still not caught up with all we've written. And we promise we'll try and not forget about this story.

Tsubasa Kya: And maybe we'll even promise to find what we do have written and edit that as well. I'm not making any promises though. You should know me by now.

Feathergriffin: (It didn't help that our hotmail account closed when we didn't visit it for awhile. We were shocked at how many reviews we had. Plus, we've went and opened a gmail account, so that's the account won't close when we haven't been there for awhile.)

Meh...we all KNOW you...

Tsubasa Kya: Damn straight. I'm greatness incarnate.

Feathergriffin: Anyways, as TK reminds me, doesn't like long ANs, and any time we start chatting, it gets longer and longer...and TK has to go to a job fair. Everyone wish her luck!

Go TK, go go TK!

Tsubasa Kya: Oh, and readers... if you see her sneaking around behind my back writing stories I don't know about, lemme know! Can't have that happening--wait a minute, secret account? Feagrif?!

Feathergriffin: Feagrif...short for feathergriffin...You KNOW my other account.

Tsubasa Kya: ...do I now?

Feathergriffin: 'cause you're special.

Tsubasa Kya: Don't you know it.

_wanders off and gets lost_

Feathergriffin: TK? Drat, TK, did you get lost in our mansion again? I don't want to have to send our bounty hunters after you...come on...TK...they're busy catching Draco. He escaped again. I guess I'll have to try finding her myself. Don't want her to be late to her job fair. Bye, ya'll!

Feathergriffin, upon returning from locating and sending TK off, notices they forgot the disclaimer. Yeah…we don't own…which is a good thing, honestly. Imagine the scary things that would happen.

**Lost Enroute to Fate**

**Chapter Eight**

As Kagome and Inuyasha walked away, Inuyasha kept glancing at Kagome out of the corners of his eyes.

"How did you do all that, anyways? I've never seen anything like it." he said. His ears flicked towards Kagome, and she had to stifle a giggle before she turned her attention to the subject matter at hand.

Kagome smiled at Inuyasha, giggles stifled. "Well, you did teach me, didn't you?" She asked him. "You must have been a great teacher," she added, to simultaneously boost his ego as well as hopefully distract him.

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows. "Do I look like someone who could have taught you to fight like a kick-ass miko?"

Kagome sighed; there was no avoiding it anymore, and he would soon be permanently in the Feudal Era, so what difference would telling him make? "When I was little, my cousin Shuichi and his mother lived with us. My dad... I guess that's Sesshoumaru, huh?... He'd given me lessons. Souta won't remember, he was only a newborn. But every day, train train train."

"Sesshoumaru couldn't have taught you to do anything with your miko powers no more then Naraku could have. Keade can't do that either." Inuyasha said. He wasn't as concerned about the actual fighting skills, but the miko powers she had used.

Kagome smiled softly. "No, Sesshoumaru and Keade didn't teach me." She admitted. "Shu-kun and me went to the same school. He was in first grade, and I was in kindergarten, but he was always picked on. He always was so weak, and afraid. He'd let them pick on him," who was 'them'? "Not that this has anything to do with my miko powers. Those I learned elsewhere..."

"Stop changing the subject," Inuyasha scowled. "Where? When? And why hadn't you used them until now?" Inuyasha asked, starting to get frustrated. He stopped in the middle of the side walk and forced Kagome to stop too. "Why didn't I know about this? I thought you trusted me!"

Kagome looked at him with slight surprise on her face. "I... thought you knew." She stated. "I thought you knew when I was gone for a whole month, but not here in my time... You know, just before the final battle... When you yelled at me for disappearing? My mother nearly strangled me because she found out I'd gone missing suddenly and YOU couldn't find me..." She was blabbing and nervous now.

"You never told me, and I ain't no psychic!" Inuyasha said, "and Naraku attacked the next day, and then you didn't seem to want to talk about it. I figured you got lost and were embarrassed!"

She looked at him skeptically. "I know I have a terrible sense of direction, but it's not THAT bad... I was gone for a whole month!"

"It's that bad," Inuyasha said.

'In the middle of that time was when I stumbled on Sesshoumaru in the hotspring,' she thought with a blush. Then the blush spread as she remembered his body, slick with water, his hair cascading down smooth, rippling, muscular skin and -- 'Enough!' She hissed silently. 'He's your dad!'

"It is not!" she said, a vain attempt to pull herself away from her terrible line of thoughts.

"You have a horrible sense of direction, and it could have gotten worse the farther you got away from Keade's and the well," Inuyasha said, folding his arms in front of him.

She was glad for the turn of events, because the longer she could avoid telling him who taught her to use her miko powers, the better in her opinion. "It's NOT that bad!" she huffed and started storming off in the opposing direction of her home. "We're going home, NOW."

"No we aren't! I'm not leaving like this!" Inuyasha said, grabbing her shoulder and swinging her around. "I''m not leaving with my best friend refusing to tell me a secret and mad at me! I refuse!"

"And what if I don't WANT you to know?!" She hissed, dragging her arm away. Suddenly she felt really angry at him. If she told him, he'd wished he hadn't asked. "What if this secret could KILL?"

"It's five hundred years until I get to see you again," Inuyasha said, looking down at the concrete, "it's only going to be a little while for you, but it's going to be five centuries for me! I don't want to spend the next five hundred years trying to figure this out, and worried about what might have happened to you." Inuyasha hid his face, trying and failing to keep emotion from his voice, but failing.

Kagome took a step back in surprise. "Oh..." she thought. 'That's right... I keep forgetting, he has to wait longer to see me than I do him...' She pulled herself together relatively quickly then, and muttered a single word. "...Kikyou..." She'd found Kikyou in the woods after getting lost on her way to the well. She must have wandered off in the wrong direction. Kikyou had been attacked by Naraku and wounded grievously.

There was no healing, but Kikyou still suffered for a month. She would have died that night for a second time, but she'd hung in there. She'd insisted that Kagome gain as much of her knowledge before she passed on as possible.

Inuyasha stared at Kagome, and winced. Kikyou had disappeared before the final battle without a word to him, or anyone else. "Oh," he said, and looked away.

She wanted to reach out and hug him, but at the moment it seemed like that would be inappropriate. "She... um... I'm sorry, Inuyasha... I did something to her, and I know I shouldn't have... but..." She was rambling again. Quickly she clamped a hand over her mouth.

Inuyasha's face turned towards Kagome so quickly she worried about whiplash. "What!" he yelled, "What happened?!"

He shook Kagome a little, then let go of her, looking apologetic. "I'm sorry, it's just," he trailed off and looked away. "What happened?" he asked again, but this time his voice was tired, as if he couldn't bear to hear more, but was determined to anyways.

"She... insisted I learn to control my miko powers. For a week, she was suffering. Naraku had attacked her. But when she slept, even in a clay body her spirit was dying. I'm really, really sorry! I wasn't thinking right!" 'If it weren't for this, I would never have stumbled on Sesshoumaru that night...'

"Is Kikyou alive?" Inuyasha asked, shadows covering his eyes as he looked into the distant horizon where the edge was just starting to lighten.

She gulped. "Um... she might... even live in this time... if hanyou can live so long..." 'I should never have done it... I was an amateur.'

"A," and Inuyasha looked at her, mouth hanging slightly open, "hanyou?!"

"Kikyou... mentioned the dark arts of the miko... Said I should never attempt to use these powers. But in order for me to know what I wasn't supposed to use, she had to tell me exactly what these things were. I... couldn't watch my counterpart suffer. I wandered off when she was sleeping, and," 'then I ran across Sesshoumaru...' "and I gathered what I needed to perform a spell that was among 

the most dangerous dark miko spells. I'm..." she actually got on her knees and bowed low to him. "I'm really, really, really sorry!!"

Inuyasha's mouth fell open. Then it closed. He opened it again to say something, but couldn't think of anything.

"She... she..." Kagome was crying now. She felt dirty for admitting it. Kikyou had slapped her with her new hanyou hand, called her a Dark Miko. But she stayed and trained her more for three more weeks in hopes that Kagome wouldn't do it again.

"Thank you," Inuyasha said finally.

"I'm, Kikyou said... that I was a Dark Miko. She said I should die. But then, she forgave m--" she stopped abruptly and looked up at him with newly-reddened eyes. "What?"

Inuyasha shook his head, as if to clear his head, and knelt down besides her. "Kikyou has a chance at another life, and you risked becoming a dark miko to save her life. Just," and he paused, closed his eyes, then opened them again, "thank you."

Kagome let a moist chuckle escape her lips. "Dark Miko or not, at least I feel a little better about it." She wiped moist eyes. "But... still... sorry... She's... she's not the same Kikyou that you knew. She might mostly look the same, but, she's not a priestess anymore. She's... hanyou, through and through... more demon than you, actually. A human soul, in a demon shell."

Inuyasha hesitated a moment, and then pulled Kagome into his arms. "She's alive, and she has a chance to be free from her former burdens. She can live her own life now. I don't care about anything else."

'No, now the burden of the Shikon no Tama is all mine...' she thought, but she tried not to let her thoughts show. She hugged him back, before taking his hand. 'Too bad he's my uncle,' she thought. 'Now Sesshoumaru... wait, no! Hello! Father!' She growled low at her thoughts. 'This is going to take a lot of getting used to...'

"Come on," she said, standing up and tugging him up with her, "We gotta get going before my mama has a fit."

Inuyasha sighed a bit, then said, "See, I was right." He probably was talking about how he wouldn't hate her for who trained her. "You should trust me more, and tell me about things." He was smirking down at her, right ear twitching in what seemed to Kagome in a cocky manner.

"Trust you? You should hate me. I've cast forbidden magic. The spell should have been completed, but I fudged it. When you see her, you won't like me as much."

"By the time I see you again, I think I'll have gotten over it," Inuyasha said confidently.

She stopped and suddenly looked at him, placing a finger to his lips. "But, I swear you to secrecy!" she said. "If my mother or father or ANYONE finds out that I've cast Dark Miko magic, I'll sit you to the center of the world."

He clumped to the ground. "KAGOME!" he groaned into dirt.

"Oops..."

"Right," Inuyasha said grumpily, "Kikyou spontaneously turned into a demon. I got it." He got up and dusted himself off.

"You know what?" she grinned evilly. "I won't get to do this for a looong time... you'd miss it, so I should give you a HARD reminder..." she smirked. "Unless you wanna stop acting like a smartass?"

"All right already. I have no idea who turned Kikyou into a demon, but I'm sure whoever it was had a good reason and I'm grateful for it." Inuyasha said, and then muttered under his breath, "By the time I get back here this thing is going to be gone."

She grinned, flicking the beads. She'd heard him. "Kikyou can't remove it anymore. What other priestess would trust you, a hanyou, enough to remove it? You're brash, annoying, and quite dangerous when you want to be. Not to mention you hit people who annoy you. No, you'll have it still, and I'll get to be the niece that you learn to love hating."

"I'll find someone," Inuyasha grumbled. A thought entered his head, and he smiled. Sango and Miroku were going to have kids, right? And surely some of them would have powers, and he would be nice Uncle Inuyasha and spoil them and everything, and then he'll convince them to take it off. He'd just have to put up with the little brats until then, and he could manage that. Right?

Kagome smirked and started walking off in the direction she thought home was in. "Come on, let's go home now."

"Yeah," Inuyasha said, good mood suddenly evaporating, "let's go home."

She was heading the wrong way again. She led him that way before he realized that she thought she knew where they were going but in fact the worrisome scent told him she wasn't sure. He knew the way. His sense of direction was impeccable, though he rarely followed that. "UGH! I... I think we're lost..." she muttered finally.

"You're sense of direction isn't that bad. Right," Inuyasha scoffed, "Get on my back and we'll go the quick way."

Kagome glared at him. "I KNOW where we are! I do NOT need your help getting home." She stubbornly walked off again. Kagome, unfortunately, began to notice that her body was littered in pains. Stabbing pains, burning pains, all sorts of pains. Her battle with Souta had left her bruised. 'Great,' she realized when her eye swelled completely shut.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. He thought about reminding her that it would be the last ride for awhile, but then he decided that this way would mean more time with Kagome before he had to leave. And with Kagome's city being as confusing as it was, they might not make it back until tomorrow or later. Then he heard Kagome groan, and decided to spare her.

"Kagome, this is the last time for me, for awhile. I'd like to do it one last time before I leave," he said.

She stubbornly shook her head. "No!" She trailed off suddenly, a gasp escaping her lips. "Wha-" 'How did we get HERE?' she wondered. Had they walked that far? 'That's... Shu-kun's home, isn't it?'

"Kagome, we're going to be late, and you'll have to deal with your mama being mad! I'm just trying to help, and it's early, and no one will notice! Hop on!" Inuyasha demanded, his patience coming to an end. Kagome was lost, in pain, and refusing any of his aid. It was insulting.

"Oh!" Kagome grabbed Inuyasha's hand suddenly and darted behind a stone stairway nearby. The door of Shu-kun's home opened, and a young man stepped out carrying a garbage bag. 'Is that... Shu-kun? Wow, it's been so long, I don't think I'd have ever recognized him.' She peered at him over the edge of the stair, trying to remain hidden at the same time.

"Kago," but Inuyasha was promptly shut up as Kagome quickly slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Shhh!" she said hurriedly, as quiet as possible. "Do you wanna get us caught?" She kept her eyes trained on the young man, then thought, 'Shu-kun's hair used to be red... it was his natural hair color... did he dye it?' This boy had black hair. 'Maybe it's not really him...'

"Kagome-chan," the voice startled Kagome so bad she nearly jumped right out of her skin.

She didn't even hear Keiko walk up. "What are you doing all the way over here?"

"Kagome-chan, I live near here, remember? I should be asking YOU that." Keiko responded, giggling. Her eyes were on Inuyasha.

Kagome glanced quickly at Inuyasha's head to make sure his ears were covered, then at Keiko. "Um, right. You see," and Kagome was interrupted.

"She's got us lost," Inuyasha inserted.

Kagome glared at him, then thought for a moment and decided to run with it. It was a good idea, actually. She ignored the fact it was the truth.

Keiko giggled again. "Then what were you doing ogling Yusuke-kun? I'm pretty sure he doesn't mind, but..." she trailed off, and then her manners reinstated themselves. "Oh, my apologies." She bowed to Inuyasha. "I am Yukimura, Keiko. I'm an old friend of Kagome-chan's. And you are?"

"Yusuke?" Kagome interrupted Inuyasha before he could speak, dreading Keiko hearing his name, "that's Yusuke. I thought it was Shu-kun and was trying to figure out how he changed so much!"

"Why would you think it's Minamino-san?" Keiko paused. "Oh, I get it... Minamino-san is on the next street over that way." She pointed north. "And yes, that's Yusuke-kun. His hair is usually slicked back though... He probably either just woke up, or has yet to go to bed."

Kagome gave a sigh of relief, feigning wiping off her brow. "Thank the spirits. Urameshi-san is cute, but if Shu-kun had grown up into that I would have had a heart attack. Anyways," and Kagome tried to find an excuse to leave, "my dad's just gotten back from his world wide trip. I had an argument with him, and stomped off, and met up with Miroku here, a friend of mine. I should probably get back though, so my mama doesn't worry. And I need to talk to my dad, who thinks he can just waltz back into my life after this long without any repercussions. I'll talk to you later, but we have to get going!" and Kagome ran off, dragging a confused Inuyasha behind her. The instant she was out of eye sight she stopped, let Inuyasha's momentum carry him in front of her, and leapt onto his back.

"Let's go!" Kagome shouted.

Kagome had the feeling that if this were the first time she'd ever leapt onto a moving Inuyasha, she'd be flapping like an errant flag with the wind. But she'd grown used to it. She wrapped her legs around his waist and felt his arms - as usual - come up to brace her thighs. She would miss him, she realized. A lot. But he would probably forget about her.

She had to face reality, he'd probably find Kikyou and live happy and long, and Kagome - his niece from the future - would be forgotten. This made her sad. Especially when she thought about the burden the Shikon no Tama was going to start bringing to her. Soon, everywhere, demons would flock to her like flies on dead fish, wanting the power of the jewel. Because she just couldn't lie to herself that demons didn't exist in her time. If Sesshoumaru was alive, others had to be too.

She thought about this for the mere five minutes it took to cross Tokyo once more. The sun was even poking its nose out. The inhabitants of the shrine would soon begin to stir. She hated the Shikon no Tama, so much.

"Do you want me to see you off? Or..." 'or do you just want me to go away?' she finished silently.

Inuyasha looked over his shoulder. "Do you have somewhere to be?" His tone was disdainful, and a bit biting.

"No," she said, her temper instantly a problem as she went on the defensive. "I just thought you wouldn't want me to watch you go!"

"It's the last time I'm going to see you for awhile. I'd like it if you would actually be there. I know you might get to see me the next day or two, but again, five centuries!" Inuyasha said, jumping off one building harder than he needed to.

"Well, I'm sorry I didn't think that far ahead!" she snapped. She could feel a headache forming just behind her throbbing left eye. At least Keiko hadn't asked about the bruises. That would've been embarrassing, but now really wasn't the time to think about Keiko.

"I haven't had a choice," Inuyasha said bitterly.

"Inuyasha..." Kagome said after another moment. "...will you promise me something?"

"What?" Inuyasha asked.

"Promise me you... Promise you won't forget me? Even if you find Kikyou, or someone to remove the rosary, or something... Promise you won't forget me?"

Inuyasha almost tripped over a railing on a building. Kagome fell off onto the top by the edge, and Inuyasha whirled around. "Why did you ask something stupid like that?"

"Well," Kagome wasn't looking at him. She was looking at the distant horizon. Her hand unconsciously came up to grasp the invisible Shikon no Tama. 'Because it'll be five hundred years,' she added silently, closing her eyes. 'And I want a friend who knows what I have been through. Souta doesn't know... Sesshoumaru... I don't think... he counts...'

The sun was beginning to rise. Her mother would wake soon.

Inuyasha, seeing her face, sighed. He turned around, and looked at the sunrise. "Kagome, I don't think I will ever forget you. Even when I do get the rosary off."

"Inuyasha... I'm... I'm supposed to seal the well after you go... will you tell Miroku and Sango and Shippou and Kirara... will you tell them..." she couldn't even finish. She choked on her voice, the fact that she was saying goodbye to her best friend, first crush, and uncle was both weird and hard.

"Sure, just don't cry!" Inuyasha said, panicking.

"Too late..." she cried, throwing her arms around him. It was a stroke of pure luck that she didn't sound like a dying rabbit by the time she started crying. She wept silently into the green haori he wore and recalled belatedly that they'd have to grab his clothes from inside the shrine before he could leave. They were important to him, after all.

"Ka, Kagome!" Inuyasha said, holding her awkwardly. By the time a few minutes had passed, Inuyasha still hadn't relaxed, and he kept trying to reassure her that he wouldn't forget her, and none of the others would, and they'd miss her, and knew she loved them, and anything else he could think of. It eventually worked, because an Inuyasha that was trying to be reassuring was too funny, even when life was as messed up as it was.

Finally Kagome pulled away from him, laughing and wiping new tears of mirth away. "I, I guess I should send you on your way now, huh?" She reached up to grasp the rosary around his neck, but she didn't pull it off. Instead, he could feel the spell suddenly burst, as if released from the beads. She wouldn't send him through the well where any priestess could use the rosary to their advantage.

She would later regret that.

Inuyasha stared at her. "You broke the spell?!" he asked, shaking his head back and forth is disbelief.

"What... if you don't want me to remove it and the threat that any priestess could subdue you and use that down time to kill you, I suppose I could put the spell right back." She was bluffing; she couldn't remember that particular spell, as it had something to do with up, down, left, and right, or maybe some mathematical equation...either way, she didn't remember it.

"No! NO! I'm good! Let's get going!" and Inuyasha swept Kagome into his arms and leapt into the air, eager to make sure that Kagome did not change her mind by getting through the well as quickly as possible.

Kagome grinned into his shirt. 'He bought that? Wow. Hey, Inuyasha, I've got the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge too...' She forced down a laugh.

"What you grinnin' about?" Inuyasha grumbled.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Keiko believed me when I said your name is Miroku." she changed the subject.

She cursed herself for that particular subject. She should've avoided THAT one.

"Like I would share a name with that pervert! What was that about, anyways?!" Inuyasha demanded.

"Hehe, funny story... Um, the girls - my friends, I mean - think you're a gang leader. I didn't want them to think you're also really good looking on top of that, so I lied." 'Haha, Kagome, you're digging a grave,' she thought. Really, she should've learned to just keep her mouth shut when she was nervous. But it always ran away on fast feet.

"I am a gang leader," Inuyasha said, confused.

She felt a nervous giggle rise again. "Um, here, in my time... gangs are... dangerous people to avoid..."

"If you hurt anyone in my gang, you better be scared," Inuyasha said.

They had arrived at the shrine, which Kagome thought this was a good thing. She pointed to her partially opened window and he nodded, taking her up to the roof and through the window. His sword and his clothes were in her room on her desk, right next to Shuichi's birthday present. She couldn't wait to try out the new soaps. She grabbed his clothes and Tessaiga, holding them out to him. "I guess, this is goodbye for now, huh?"

"I'm going to remember this conversation, and figure out why you were trying to keep your so-called friends from knowing who I was. And I want to have a talk with the rest of your perverted friends when I'm back here, too," Inuyasha said, avoiding the subject.

"Um, how about no?" she grinned, but she kept her voice down. Sesshoumaru and her mother should still be asleep in the room across the hall, but just in case she didn't want to wake them. "I think that's a secret I'm entitled to." She hugged him a last time, looking at him through her good eye. "If you go near my friends, I'll sit you to the middle of the earth." He flinched, but the spell was gone.

Inuyasha smirked.

She wasn't serious, of course, but hopefully he didn't know that.

"You will, huh?" he asked. He had been thinking on the way to the shrine, and he had a solution.

So maybe he didn't think her very serious... Crap, so much for THAT bluff. Were there any alternative threats on hand? "I'll sick my dad on you."

"I ain't afraid of your dad. I'll kick his butt," Inuyasha said. He had been hoping Kagome would try to cast the spell again, because he wanted to see her face when she realized she couldn't even reapply the spell. Now he'd have to wait five hundred years for that too. He needed to start a to do list.

"But if you hurt him," she said, looking at him with amused, yet woeful eyes, "you'd hurt my feelings... You wouldn't want me to feel bad, would you?"

"I won't hurt him if he doesn't attack me. Besides, you don't see to happy with him anyways. You'd probably be cheering me on," Inuyasha said, "and I don't blame you. He complained about father and then pulled this stunt?!"

Kagome sighed. "Alright, come on. Don't you to go getting mad, and don't kill him in the next five hundred years or I won't exist. You can beat him severely, though. I'll let you."

Inuyasha grinned. "My pleasure."

Kagome kissed Inuyasha's cheek. "I still can't picture you as my uncle though." She then pushed him toward the window. "Get going, okay? I'll seal the well after you're gone..." 'But, to be honest, I don't want to watch that familiar blue light engulf you once more...'

The sun had risen finally and her alarm clock said 6:45 AM.

"You're still coming to say good bye!" Inuyasha commanded, and carried her with him to the well house before Kagome could blink twice.

Kagome blinked twice after they'd gotten into the well house. She stood by the entrance, looking at the yawning lip of the well. It seemed so cold and foreboding. How come it usually seemed warm to her, like a friendly place to go through, but now it felt like an alien being? "Inuyasha..." She could feel her mother's aura surrounding the well.

"Bye," he said, and hugged her quickly before he jumped down the well. Kagome closed her eyes, and listened to the silence for a moment. But only for a moment, because she heard a thud and the loud shout of, "The well broke!"

-

He didn't really even have to set the alarm clock anymore, but he still did. His golden orbs pierced the still darkness and he lay in bed beside his wife-of-twenty-years. She was curled up on his left side, one leg between his two, her head on his chest, her fingers twined in his hair.

He hated it; watching her grow old as he stayed the same. He could understand his father better these days, and now he knew what his father meant when he said, 'Someday you too will understand, Sesshoumaru.' It had only taken a few hundred years to learn that hard lesson.

If there was a way to keep her, to keep Ai, from aging like normal humans… he wished he had the option, but he didn't. She was a priestess, and unfortunately such binding magic couldn't be cast on her. And his children, they too would grow old and die before him, wouldn't they? It almost made an early, untimely death preferable to the alternative.

The clock clicked as it changed into 7:00 and his alarm began calling for wakefulness. It was quiet at first, but then as he let it ring, not wanting to move from where he was, not desiring to remove his arms from around his wife's waist, it gradually grew louder and more persistent.

The wailing of the clock made Ai begin to stir. She would be angry with him; he'd shut off her alarm clock when he'd arrived home again from the movie theater, if for no other reason than to give Kagome some more time with Inuyasha. He couldn't care less if Inuyasha got to see her, but he understood how close Kagome had gotten to the mutt.

Otherwise Ai would have gotten up two hours ago already.

He had listened to Kagome and Inuyasha speaking in her room only fifteen minutes ago. The time bought by unsetting the alarm was a good thing. It was amusing to know that Inuyasha still believed he could defeat him. At the same time, it was also sad to know that Kagome seemed to wish him ill will.

Well, he also supposed it was his fault; he had tried to kill her quite a few times. Ah, the impetuousness, as well as stupidity, of youth…kill something, and the problem disappears…

Before the clock could wake Ai up completely, Sesshoumaru maneuvered her so she was on her pillow instead of him and shut off the noise-maker. He changed from his silk pajamas, realizing belatedly that he'd actually worn these articles of clothing in his hurry to the theater to stop his destructive children, into a white tee-shirt, a button up polo shirt, and black slacks.

He ran a brush through his long hair rather absentmindedly. It was indeed very troublesome to recall that Inuyasha had disappeared five hundred years ago and that no amount of searching gave a conclusive sign to his death. What if, hypothetically thinking of course, Inuyasha never returned through the well? What if the course of destiny required Inuyasha in modern day Japan without living for five hundred extra years?

If this was the case, it certainly would be nothing short of awkward for Sesshoumaru. Standing, Sesshoumaru glanced at his sleeping wife. She was nearing her forties; so was he, but he wouldn't even be forty-one when she was fifty.

He desired nothing more than to just curl up next to her and stare at her at that moment. Perhaps if he was lucky, time would simply stop and she wouldn't have to age anymore. He could live in that moment with her forever.

Sesshoumaru had to tear his eyes away from her gentle features and force himself to think of the day ahead. If he got caught up in how fragile her life was, he would forget his other obligations and she would scold him for it. Not, of course, that he would mind much. He always found her anger to be rather invigorating.

But for now, Koenma had breached the agreement Sesshoumaru had with King Enma, and that had to be dealt with.

He left the house and the shrine, feeling Inuyasha's aura still in the well house with Kagome. They were probably saying goodbye, he thought. Inuyasha—the nuisance—would soon be out of Sesshoumaru's hair for at least a little while.

The closest portal to the Spirit World was about six blocks from the Minamino household—from Sesshoumaru's human ward's descendant's home. He did miss Rin from time to time. She was another reminder that humans' lives were frail. She died of sickness in her forties; it was a problem that all the female descendants to her bloodline had.

Only one female had managed to survive the strain, though Sesshoumaru was unsure how. She'd taken ill just a few years ago, and her son, Shuichi, had gone to see her in the hospital every day. Then, as suddenly as one could snap their fingers, her condition stopped declining and instantly began improving. A few days later, she was out of the hospital.

The portal came into sight. It was nothing more than a dark shadow between two walls. He walked straight at it and through it into the offices in the Spirit World. Shocked fear greeted him upon his arrival, and whispers instantly rippled around him.

"Sesshoumaru-sama…"

"It's him…"

"Sesshoumaru-sama…"

"He's here…"

Sesshoumaru glanced around the room with a bored expression on his face. It really got old, very quickly, to have everyone fear him. Then again, to be a ruler of a clan and not be feared and respected was out of the question.

Botan, seeing Sesshoumaru, dashed over. "Sesshoumaru-sama! What are you doing here?"

Sesshoumaru glanced at the Lady Death. "Hm. You did not know." It was more of a statement, he knew. Botan, while she did work for Koenma, was a decent sort and abided strictly by rules. Without rules to guide her, she'd probably fall apart after spending just one day escorting dead spirits to the afterlife. She had a distinct measure of duty which she followed. So if she had known—really known—about the breach of agreement, she probably would have argued it.

"Know what?" Botan asked, biting her lip in worry.

He continued forward toward Koenma's office and as he approached, the door opened and a stony-faced hanyou stepped out, her black hair falling unbidden to her waist. He thought she had almost a similar look to Kagome, but he shoved this aside. Almost everyone had a body double somewhere in the world-except for him, of course. He was obviously unique.

"Your master, or employer, or however you want to term him, has been confirmed to be sending people after members of my family and clan." He didn't specify who, because whether it was his daughter or not was irrelevant. He would still be here no matter who it was.

"We have no records of any such breech in our contract," the hanyou woman said calmly. A second later, she bowed slightly, in respect, and left.

"Sesshoumaru, you can't possibly think Koenma would do something like that!" Botan said, running up beside him.

"I do not just assume this." Sesshoumaru frowned at the pink garbed woman, though his eyes followed the hanyou. She was half-cat demon and it made every instinct of his scream to chase her. He hated how cats brought out that aspect of him.

Sesshoumaru was merely a foot from the office now...

"Of, of course," Botan said, "but I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding."

Inside the office, Koenma was going through his required pampering session before meeting respected personages. With a pop, he turned into his teenage form and arranged himself presentably, resting his chin on his clasped hands in front of him.

"I doubt it." Sesshoumaru said and entered the office. "Koenma..." his voice was like liquid steel and colder than ice. He hated it when his contracts were breached. That meant that someone was disobeying him.

"Lord Sesshoumaru," Koenma said, bowing his head as a mark of respect, though only to the depth necessary for greeting an equal, "Might I inquire as to the nature of your visit?"

Sesshoumaru moved to stand casually before Koenma's desk. "Indeed, you might. One has come to believe that you are failing to meet the agreements placed before your birth, that which was set up by your father and myself. Also, when addressing me, be so kind as to take the pacifier out of your mouth."

Koenma frowned slightly up at Sesshoumaru's towering height. "You know it's a receptacle for my gathered energy, and I can't do that without losing some of its power. I'm sorry if you believe it is undignified, but it is by my father's orders that I keep it there."

"Explain to me why you are having your dogs bring my daughter here?" Sesshoumaru then felt a sinister little smile come to his face. "If your answer is satisfactory, I might forgive you for your actions against me; though know I will still not let you see her."

"Your daughter? What is her name?" Koenma asked, a strange look coming over his face. "I hadn't even been informed that you had a daughter."

Sesshoumaru scowled and pulled the family picture from his pocket that had been in the file given to the spirit detectives. He thrust it at Koenma. Quite clearly, the man in the picture is Sesshoumaru in form with a concealment charm. The woman, his wife. Then a little boy and a young girl. "Do not lie to this Sesshoumaru." he hissed low and dangerous.

"I am not! Father doesn't even allow me to handle any dealings with your occasional ambassadors! I don't even have access to your information! Father just hands the cases to me!" Koenma protested.

He looked more closely at the photograph and paled. "You're Higurashi, Kagome's father? I didn't even know that was your last name! I beg your forgiveness; dad just handed the file straight to me, and I just did as he commanded! My apologies, again, I would never do that to someone with whom we have an agreement! I shall withdraw my detectives immediately!"

Sesshoumaru felt his scowl become even deeper. He hated groveling. In fact, it was one of the things he loathed most out of all the things that people could do. Fear him, yes, but grovel? "So, would you intend to disobey your father then?" he inquired. Disobedience was among the top-ten list of things Sesshoumaru hated as well.

Koenma drew himself up. "My father might have decided to breach his contract with you, but I assure you, I would never do so. Never to you, or any other person unless and until they had already broken their end of it. I do not know what kind of person you think I am, but I do have my honor. It was an honest mistake on my part, but now that I have been informed I shall correct the situation as quickly as possible. The rest of the matter you will have to take up with my father."

Koenma inwardly winced, thinking of all the beatings his father was going to give him over this, but everything he said was the truth. He just tended to babble when he found out he had done something wrong. Who could blame him, having been raised with King Enma for a father?

"And," Sesshoumaru drawled, flexing one clawed hand, "I do believe your response still is not satisfactory..." He looked at the maroon stripes that lined his wrist. He did, after all, have a bargain to uphold with Hiei. He had to get his sister into his care. "I desire payment in a life... To ensure that you will not again breach this contract, I desire the sister of one of your spirit dogs in my care. Specifically the Ice Maiden."

So Sesshoumaru was lying just a little bit... So what? Koenma would see this as a dangerous bargain, because if Koenma stepped over the line again, there was the chance that he might place Yukina in danger. For all who knew of the Forbidden One's relationship to Yukina, it was obvious that Hiei would refute any order and retaliate harshly against those who put his sister in danger—despite any punishments he may receive for it.

Koenma winced slightly, but nodded. After all, Hiei knew that those who worked for Lord Sesshoumaru were well cared for as long as they did their jobs, and Yukina was certainly a hard worker. "That is a reasonable request, but I would hope you would allow her to continue to visit her human friends occasionally." Yukina was such an innocent, and Koenma had developed a soft spot towards her. He knew she wouldn't want to just leave all of the connections she had made behind.

"As you forbade her from leaving the old hag's shrine? I think you do not have the right to hope for anything from me." Sesshoumaru said, "This Sesshoumaru shall take you upon your word. If the Ice Maiden is not at my shrine by noon, then I will not be pleased and you can expect my clan armed by sundown." He was bluffing. He wouldn't arm his clan for such a menial thing, but the threat was a great one anyway. It certainly would give Koenma cause to wonder whether or not to take Sesshoumaru on his word.

"I never gave any orders to that effect," Koenma said, confused.

Sesshoumaru held back a sigh. "Just have her there. Where is your father?"

"I don't know. He's away from here right now. The woman who just left here, the hanyou Kikyou, is one of his assistants. She usually sends me his messages, and delivers the cases that need attention." Koenma said.

"Very well. And my sources about the Ice Maiden are not incorrect. She has been restricted to shrine grounds. If you are going to lead people, make sure you know everything about the situation and do not trust others to hand you that information. Develop your own resources, for next time, I shall not be so lenient," Sesshoumaru said, and walked out of the office with a graceful stride.

Koenma slumped down in his chair. "Father, what have you done?"

-

It was with great trepidation that the two ended up moseying their way back into the main building of the shrine, to the kitchen where Kagome's mother awaited them with a scowl on her face. She sat at the table looking very menacing indeed, with her hands folded around a coffee cup. "And what, might I ask, are you still doing here, young man?"

"The well broke!" Inuyasha said angrily, "I can't get back!" He was happy that he could stay with Kagome longer, but he had just lost his whole life! His friends, his enemies, and not to mention the fact that this wasn't his time! How could he be expected to survive in a time so far from his own!

Kagome looked at her mother, feeling apprehensive herself. "It's really not our fault! The well didn't work for him. I tried to go through too, but it worked for me, but not for him! It won't let him through!"

Ai frowned at her daughter. It seemed to Kagome that it took an excruciatingly long time for Ai to set down her coffee cup and stand up from her seat, though it wasn't old age as the cause.

"It's not his fault!" Kagome insisted anyway.

"I sealed the well myself." Ai said slowly. "It was a timed seal. Anything with demon blood would not be able to pass through the well. Nothing—absolutely nothing except Dark magic—could remove that spell now that it's in place." Ai looked very upset. "You are BOTH in so much trouble."

"Why would you do something that stupid, mama! You know Inuyasha has a bad sense of direction! We got lost!" Kagome yelled.

Inuyasha glared at Kagome. "ME? Bad sense of direction? My sense of direction is impeccable!" He snorted. "So is my nose! You're the one who insisted you knew where you were going and didn't need any help!" Inuyasha added.

Ai slapped her open palm down on the table. The loud noise startled the two of them. She had a strange look on her face, as if she knew the perfect punishment. "Inuyasha, now that you are a permanent addition to my family, however much Sesshoumaru may dislike it, you will need to go to reform school."

Inuyasha said, "Re--form?"

A smirk crossed Ai's face, and it looked very uncharacteristic on her. "Indeed. Demon reform school is something that every demon that will be entering the human world legally must go through. You could be there days, or years, as you learn to read, write, and how to use all the amenities of this world, as they do not have them in the Makai." Ai looked very pleased with herself.

"Years?" Inuyasha said, and collapsed on a chair. "I'm never going back?" he asked. What was he supposed to do? This was Kagome's era, not his!

Kagome said, "But eventually, he'll graduate this reform school and come here again, right?"

Ai stopped smiling eerily. "Yes."

And this was the choice moment that Sesshoumaru stepped into the kitchen. "Inuyasha, why are you still here?" He'd thought that he was rid of his nit-wit brother. Guess not.

Inuyasha, uncharacteristically, didn't say anything, but continued to stare at his hands.

"Dearest," Ai said sweetly to Sesshoumaru. "Inuyasha-kun cannot go through the well, and we cannot have him traipsing about with no knowledge of how to live in our world, can we? He'll need to be enrolled in Demon Reform School."

Sesshoumaru growled and balled his fist up. He'd already had to deal with enough today—not that it was any more than any other day, really but... He cuffed Inuyasha's ear. "Do you realize how pissed I 

am right now?" he growled at the hanyou. "Now, not only do I have to locate Enma, but I've got to find time to take you and enroll you in REFORM school?"

Ai did nothing to stop what was going on, feeling the treatment was justly deserved. Inuyasha wouldn't have gotten slugged if he'd just gone through the well. Perhaps, she thought, mothers shouldn't think that way...

"You think I wanted to stay here?! I know nothing here!" Inuyasha yelled back, pushing his chair back to yell in Sesshoumaru's face.

Sesshoumaru's face only hardened as he turned on Kagome. "You were told before dawn. Have him through the well BEFORE dawn."

Kagome wasn't about to be reprimanded by a man who was never there, though. "I was ALSO told that I was the one who would seal it!" she snapped. "How was I supposed to know mama would put a time seal on it? I didn't even know that was an option! If I had known, I wouldn't have tried to enjoy my walk back with Inuyasha since the movie was ruined by Souta!" she added, her face red.

Souta stepped into the room. "Someone say my name? Hey Uncle Inu." Souta sat next to Inuyasha and said, "Mama, what's for breakfast?"

"It's almost lunch time dear. You slept through breakfast." Ai said, though her words were kind her tone was clipped.

"What?! I'm in trouble, and he isn't!" Kagome shouted. "Need I remind you what he did? What he said to me?!" Kagome was clenching her fists tightly, and getting close to the level of anger she had reached last night.

Sesshoumaru growled low in his throat before looking at Inuyasha. "Let's go. I don't have time to waste for your sorry ass." He turned and stalked out the door. "And bring your sword," Sesshoumaru said. "I really don't need you going berserk while you're there. Just one more mess to clean up. Damn it all to hell."

Ai said, "Souta served his punishment last night. If YOU would have come HOME, you too would have served your punishment for the fight last night."

Kagome didn't listen to her mother, but instead she raced to the kitchen door. "YOU ARE NOT MY FATHER!" she yelled. "MY FATHER WOULD NEVER TURN HIS BACK TO ME!"

Sesshoumaru paused for a moment, shoulders tensing. Then he continued to walk, his grip on Inuyasha's arm tighter than necessary.

Kagome watched the man who claimed to be her father leave once again. Then she turned around, hands clenched tightly by her sides. "I'm leaving. I don't know when I'll be back! This has been my worst birthday ever!"

She turned around and ran out of the house, leaving a gaping Ai and Souta watching her staggering run and loud sobs.

Ai and Souta looked at each other. They had forgotten that yesterday was her birthday. Well, they hadn't forgotten, but with everything that had happened, it had been pushed to the backs of their minds.

Souta sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He'd taken to doing that a lot. His left eye still sparkled with streamers of gold. "Mom, she just... maybe..." he started, not knowing how to verse it right. Kagome HAD just gotten back from four years of what probably wasn't just a fun romp through the woods. "Naraku..." he gave up trying. The words just wouldn't come.

"She didn't even get to have her birthday cake!" Ai said, looking over at the forlorn masterpiece. It had not held up well overnight. Ai was still upset about Kagome's outburst and her frown showed it, but she was realizing she may have been a little harsh on Kagome and Inuyasha. What if this was how things should be?

Souta sighed. "We should... throw her another one. One that's not... a crappy version of good..." He almost felt bad for beating his older sister up. Then he thought aloud, "Nah. Stupid idea. Kagome's a brat, anyways. She's probably lost in the city as we speak."

Ai groaned. "I can't believe I forgot! And Kagome will get lost and Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha aren't here to track her down and I don't know how I'll find her!"

"I know!" Souta saw his mother's hand inching toward the spoon she usually used to whack his head with when he said something upsetting. She probably was offended that he'd called Kagome a brat. At least she wasn't scolding him yet. She always scolded him right before whacking him. "Why don't we call Cousin Shuichi! He's working for that detective agency, or whatever, right? Or at least, dad said he was! Maybe he could help..."

"I thought he was going to that school for medicine. Is it a thing he does in his spare time? He doesn't really seem like a detective," she trailed off, thinking, "though he always did love those detective books when he was younger. I think I might have even seen a Detective Conan in there somewhere, though I doubt he would admit to it," she said.

Souta slapped his fist in his palm. "I'll call!" he decided. "The last thing we need is for Kagome to end up in the bad side of town wearing that dress, AND the Shikon no Tama."

"You can see it?" Grandpa asked, entering. He'd been listening at the door. None of them could see the Shikon no Tama because it had an invisibility spell on it.

Souta blushed. "No, but I can feel it pulsing, like... calling... like singing, you know? Can't you guys feel it? Whenever it's close - I've always felt the song calling me."

Ai gave a significant look to her father. "Even when you were little?"

"Well," Souta gulped, feeling interrogated all of a sudden. He felt uneasy about the question, though he didn't know why. "...Yeah... It was quieter then, though... It got louder and more persistent after Kagome got pulled through the well by Mistress Centipede, and came back that first time..."

Grandpa frowned thoughtfully. Then, suddenly, a sutra was in his hand and he slapped it to Souta's forehead. "BEGONE, demon within my grandson!" he cried.

Ai felt like slapping her forehead. "Grandfather," she said warningly, "do you not remember who exactly I married? You're going to need a lot more sutras than what you have if you want to get rid of all things demonic in the household."

"What are you talking about, Ai?" Grandpa said, a firm decided tone, "Sesshoumaru is not a demon! I am a great priest! I think I know demons when I see them!" He then proceeded to wander out of the kitchen. "I hear that new soap opera, All My Wives, is airing its second season today! Goody!"

Souta and Ai looked at each other, dumbfounded. "I thought he knew?" Souta said, looking over his shoulder at his laughing grandfather.

"I guess he's good at denial," Ai said thoughtfully.

"Denial? That's one word for it," Souta said, shaking his head, "I think crazy is a little closer, though."

"Souta, don't say such about your elders. It is very disrespectful. Now, call Shuichi-kun if you're going to, but when you're done I want to hear more about this song you hear when the jewel is near you." Ai began drying the breakfast plates...

Souta looked at his mother then looked around for the phone. He hit a few numbers, and then realized that he didn't know Shuichi's number anyways. He hadn't seen him that often, and when he did his mom had always invited him. "Mom! What's the phone number!" he whined.

"It's written on the wall, dear. Just in front of you." Ai smiled. Yes, this was how her house was supposed to be; whining teens, and confused grandfathers.

If only it were an easy job to implement her husband back into the equation...

"Oh," Souta mumbled, and dialed. The phone rang for a few minutes, and a bright, cheerful voice asked, "Hello! This is Shiori speaking!"

"Hi there, Aunt Shiori!" Souta said to the woman on the other end of the line. "It's me, Souta!"

"Souta, is that you? You sound so grown up! You simply must come and visit sometime so I can see you!" Shiori said, "It's been so long! I bet you're a real lady killer like my Shuichi!"

Souta blushed and caught a glimpse of himself in the decorative unicorn mirror in the hall; covered in blue-purple bruises, he didn't think he was much of a lady killer at the moment. It was Kagome's fault... "Oh, um, well, I do have a girlfriend..." he muttered.

"I bet she's cute! So, what did you want to talk about?" Shiori asked.

"Oh! Talk about... I was wondering if Shuichi is there. I was hoping I could catch him before he goes to work. Dad said he works evenings." Souta twirled the cord to the phone in his fingers, and soon he ended up wrapped up in the long cord to which end he had to untangle or risk being stuck forever. "Is... is he there, or did he have school today?"

"Oh, no. He's here, talking to one of his girlfriends!" Shiori replied. In the distance through the phone, Souta could swear he heard protests to the contrary. However, getting untangled was a bigger problem at the moment.

Shuichi's voice came across the phone next. "Shuichi speaking." he said, but then quietly whispered to someone else, "Would you settle down?"

"Shuichi!" Souta asked, "How are you?"

"I'm"—he whispered—"Keiko!" then said, "fine. How are you, Souta? I was going to come visit this afternoon."

"Maybe while you're on the way here you could look for Kagome. She's run off, and you know how her sense of direction is," Souta said, rolling his eyes. How could anyone have that bad of a sense of direction?

Souta swore, if you gave a map to Kagome that would tell her where her butt was, her hands would get lost on the way there.

Shuichi chuckled. "I'll find her. How's pops doing?" He was referring to Sesshoumaru, as Sesshoumaru was - as a default - his grandfather, kind of adopted. "Mom told me he came back to the city finally."

"That's why she ran off. They got into a bit of a tiff," Souta said. He decided, for the sake of his not being in trouble with Shuichi who could have a rather intimidating stare that he would avoid everything else that happened to Kagome. Maybe she wouldn't mention everything to him...

"Well, it is logical. She hasn't seen him in thirteen years. How is her health today? Will she be throwing up blood when I find her?" There was a small scuffle on Shuichi's end of the line... "Keiko, I know!" he whispered. Now, that whisper shouldn't have been heard, but Souta did.

"Who is that?" Souta asked. He wanted to finish up this conversation and talk with his girlfriend already. "And no, no blood. Not at the moment, anyways," Souta added.

"That's good." Now Shuichi sounded distracted - majorly. "I'll see you later, Souta." He didn't even wait for a proper farewell before hanging up.

Souta grumbled under his breath and left to go up to his bedroom and more importantly, his computer which had messenger. Hopefully his girlfriend would be on right now and they could commiserate with each other about the interrupted date. He had had plans for last night!

Ai called to him. "What did Shuichi say?"

"Yes!" Souta said, and ran up the stairs before anything else interrupted him.

Ai frowned. "I will have to grill him later on the song he's hearing." She wished he was more focused, but he was a teenager, fifteen and easily distracted.

-

Kagome wandered around on the streets. Her eyes felt like they could drop out of her skull, she was exhausted, and she had had the crappiest day ever. And now, she admitted, if only in her mind, she was lost.

-

Keiko glared at Kurama. "I'm not buying into that!" she said decidedly. "Something's going on with her, and you're just standing there believing that she's deathly ill. Now, apparently she's run off? She was not sick - she told me she was training!"

Shuichi sighed, and shook his hair back over his shoulder. "I don't really care about which sort of trouble she is in at the moment. She's lost, and I wish to go look for her. I'm sure Yusuke wouldn't mind you visiting him; he lives around here, doesn't he?" Inwardly Kurama prayed she would. Keiko could be nice, but she was also quite rough on the ears.

Keiko huffed, "Kurama, she could get hurt. What if this Inuyasha guy really is a gang leader or something? He's been after her for four years to get her to 'train' she says. Don't you CARE?"

"If she has been training for four years, then at least I won't have to worry quite as much about muggers. Now all I have to worry about is her incredibly bad sense of direction and where she might end up. And frankly, I appreciate you bringing it to my attention, but I would prefer to handle this more privately," Kurama wasn't sure how much blunter he could get, and he disliked having to do so in the first place, but Keiko was being way too pushy and opinionated.

Why doesn't she work more on Yusuke, if she was so worried about fights with gangs and other things. Just because Yusuke wasn't in a gang didn't mean that he didn't have feuds going on with the local gangs that were trying to gain power. Everyone wanted to fight Yusuke Urameshi, at least the first time or two. Only Kuwabara was…enthusiastic enough to keep coming back to get beaten up…er…settle their creative differences…

Keiko sighed heavily. "Fine, fine. If that's how you want to play it." She stuck her nose in the air, sniffed once, then slammed out of his house, muttering to herself about how she was worried about her pen-pal who was also a close friend.

Kagome found herself in who-knew-what-park at who-knew-where in Tokyo. She wasn't sure herself. All she knew was that she was extremely exhausted, plus from the fight yesterday with Souta, she found any energy reserves were depleting quickly.

Kurama gave a very slight sigh of relief, and grabbed his jacket. That was one problem solved, temporarily at least. Now he just had to find his one, incredibly directionally challenged cousin in a city the size of Tokyo. This would be a challenge that even Youko Kurama might have had trouble completing.

-

She found a park swing and sat down on it, leaning her head against the chain. She looked at her feet. "When did I lose my shoes?" she wondered. She'd been wearing high heels. Those didn't just disappear without people noticing usually, but apparently they COULD.

"Yay." she muttered to herself, "I'm nineteen."

-

Working at a private investigator's agency on top of being a spirit detective--needing to make money for college--he had picked up more than a few tricks of the trade. He wanted to find his cousin, and he would. But he would use Hiei only as a last resort.

Admittedly, the little telepath could find anything in an instant. But Hiei would probably end up asking questions concerning Kurama's relationship to Kagome, questions Kurama didn't feel like answering.

He decided to start checking at the parks, oden restaurants, and malls around where she lived. Hopefully, she hadn't wandered too far, and upon seeing something even remotely familiar would head for there.

-

Kagome looked around, thinking, "I can't recognize ANYTHING. Where the heck AM I? And I don't even have change for a cab or a payphone. Perhaps a cell phone wouldn't be a bad investment now that I'm here for good again..." Though she'd probably lose it. She was good at losing things.

Of course, she would only admit that to herself. If anyone came by that she knew she would make sure they knew that she knew exactly where she was.

And she did know where she was. Lost. She was there a lot. Lost was a fun place to be, she thought sarcastically.

Kagome started to swing slightly, barely moving her feet. After a couple of swings, she yawned and fell off.

-

Kurama sighed. If Kagome had run off in a hurry, upset and confused as Souta had claimed, she probably didn't have money or anything with her. Not that she'd use the money to call someone and say she was lost. She was too stubborn to admit something like that.

She was stubborn about a lot of things, actually. However, that meant he could at least check the parks first. Hopefully Hiei wouldn't be lurking in whichever one he was in, because then he'd have to find some excuse to leave quickly, or stay and chat for a few minutes. Or even worse, if Kagome was there at the same time.

Kurama expanded his search to the next district of Tokyo after an hour of no luck. He needed to look in places that were free, given that Kagome wouldn't have money.

-

Kagome groaned as she was shaken awake by a very tiny hand. Opening her eyes, she looked at the perpetrator. It was a young boy, cute with wide, innocent brown eyes and messy black hair. "Miss, are you okay?" he asked her.

She sat up, sand in her hair. The little boy was dressed almost royally, in a bright blue haori. "What?"

"Miss, are you okay?" he asked.

Kagome nodded, almost sure she saw something familiar in the boy. She looked at his head closely. Then, she saw it. The familiar twitching of ears. They were hidden underneath a charm of some sort, but her eyes could see through it almost. They were transparent.

She wasn't sure what to do, though. She couldn't just say, "I know you're a demon. What's your name?"

A bit bigger of a girl rushed over to her sibling. She had bright red hair and green eyes, with the same furry ears. "Tsu, don't bother the lady!" the girl tutted. She bowed slightly, as nicely dressed as her sibling, but her kimono was dirt stained.

"But 'Gome!" he whined.

"That's okay," Kagome said. She yawned. "Where are your parents anyways? Shouldn't they be watching for you?" she asked.

'Gome looked around, but with the tactlessness of youth, Tsu simply yelled as loudly as he could, "MOM! DAD!"

'Gome then took her tiny hand and whacked her brother upside the head. "Dummy!" she said. "Daddy's working still, with Mommy." She pointed to the building across the street, a very large one. "Mommy and Daddy work there." She puffed her chest out importantly, "They're important people!"

Tsu glared at 'Gome. "You didn't have to hit me!"

"You don't have to be dumb!" argued 'Gome. The two began rough housing then, Tsu becoming as dirty as "Gome" very quickly.

Kagome scratched her head. She could deal with Shippou in the feudal era, but kids in this era? That was what school had been created for. "And they just let you roam around here?" she asked finally. The two kids stopped and looked up at her and shrugged.

"It's no big deal," 'Gome muttered.

"Can I meet your parents?" she asked. She needed to talk to the people who would just let their kids roam around, demonic or not.

A tall gentleman came over to the two children. He looked respectable, and tutted at the children. "Playtime's over. Back to your tutoring. I'm very sorry they bothered you, miss." He smiled at her, bowed, and ushered the children toward a picnic bench where some books were.

Tsu waved to Kagome. "Don't let him take us away!" he pleaded.

'Gome gave cute puppy eyes. "He'll make us READ!" she whined.

The gentleman flushed slightly, embarrassed by the display. "Come on now, your parents want you to be tutored. If you can't do your reading in the park, we'll go back to the mansion and stay inside."

Kagome felt a slight blush come over her face. Not only was he cute, but she had been about to lecture people who were apparently more responsible than she had thought. "No problem," she said, "my name's Kagome Higurashi. You are their tutor?"

She stood up, brushing herself free of sand, feeling bare in front of this stranger who was immaculate.

The tutor didn't notice anything, but the kids' eyes widened. Tsu tugged on her dress. "Are you really Kagome Higurashi?" he asked.

"Um, yes," Kagome said. "Why?"

The tutor tutted the children again and urged them toward the picnic bench. "Now, get to the books." They glared at him like he was evil, and then made their way like scolded children to the bench.

The tutor turned to Kagome and held out his hand in greeting. "I am sorry for their preposterous behavior. Their parents gave them the idea that there was a girl with your name five hundred years ago, and so named Kagome after her. I am Fsu Tonin, their elder brother. I never did believe those stories. Of course, I was adopted in my teens, so I didn't grow up on them like they were sustenance."

"Um," Kagome giggled nervously, "right. What's your dad's name?" Who would name a kid after her anyways?

"Shippou Tonin." Fsu waved to the building. "He owns Tonin Pranks and Jokes, the chain stores."

Kagome's mouth slowly fell open. "Shippou," and here she drew in a breath, for she felt she lacked oxygen, "Tonin?"

'Gome and Tsu looked at each other. It had to be her! That would show their big brother!

Fsu ran a hand through his semi-long black hair in a sigh. "Yes. This is the reaction many have when they hear his name. It is why Tsu and Kagome cannot go to a public school, unfortunately. Even children their age know of the Tonin name, or should I say especially, considering that it's a prank store. And father just loves it, the way the newspaper calls him the King of Mischief."

Kagome felt like hitting herself on the forehead. Tonin! She had heard of him before! And all this time!

"Are you going to be alright, Miss Higurashi?" Fsu asked.

Tsu called out, "Yay! Granny Kagome! We foooound her!" 'Gome giggled and the two children forgot the books and started dancing in circles.

"Um, that's not really necessary," Kagome said, holding her hands up.

Fsu frowned. "She isn't that Kagome! There was never a Kagome that time traveled! And she isn't wearing the Shikon no Tama, so that proves it!"

The two children continued to chant happily.

Fsu growled a little, and Kagome noticed now that Fsu was human. "Enough of that, both of you." Fsu ordered. He apologized to her again. "I don't know what's gotten into them. Really, father shouldn't have done this. He's created little monsters!"

Kagome giggled nervously, and her hand twitched towards her neck. "My grandpa sells Shikon no Tama key chains. I can get some for you."

Fsu groaned. "Please, don't encourage them Miss."

"Oh!" Tsu ran over and begged. "Please? I want one!"

'Gome said, "Me too, me too!" she tugged Kagome's dress pleadingly. "I want one too!"

Kagome looked apologetically at Fsu. 'Sorry,' she mouthed.

Fsu said, "Now you've done it. I won't get them to study for the rest of the day." Still, his lip quirked in a smile, though he tried to hide it behind his hand. Clearly he didn't mind as much as he was making it look like.

"What's all this commotion?" a voice can from behind Kagome. "Aren't you two supposed to be studying?"

Tsu giggled and hugged his big sister. "Shikon no Tama," he sang as they danced.

"Yay, yay, yay!" sang 'Gome, counterpart to her brother.

Clearly no such studying was being done.

Kagome froze. She wanted to turn around, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. That voice... it was the same one... Shippou... Well, it had matured a little, but it was as mischievous as ever.

The kids, however, had no such restraints. "Daddy, daddy! We found Granny 'Gome!"

Fsu argued, "I'm sorry, father. But she encouraged them with promises of trinkets from a shrine." He smirked at Kagome, a light, teasing smirk as if the blame was bad but knowing it wasn't serious.

Kagome couldn't even manage a weak smile. She turned around slowly, heart beating much faster than should have been possible.

Shippou was much larger than the last time she'd seen him. He kept the same hairdo. His shoulders had broadened, and quite simply he was a rather handsome adult. She could even see through the mask of a charm that hid his ears and tail. The fluffy tail twitched and the ears swiveled as his eyes widened and his grin seemed to become a permanent addition to his features.

Kagome launched herself at him. "Shippou! You're still alive!" she yelled right in his ear.

"Long time." he said simply. "But is it polite to keep a man's kids from their schoolwork?" His eyes, emerald orbs filled with laughter, looked at her as he embraced her. Fsu was clearly shocked. He hadn't believed it...

"TOLD YOU!" Tsu taunted.

"Nya, nya!" 'Gome prodded.

"Can you blame me?! You have kids!" Kagome said, ignoring the jumping jacks around her and Shippou. "And they're so cute!" she added, "who's the mother?"

Shippou laughed and then looked at his youngest children. "Schoolwork, now." he ordered. They disobeyed him and kept dancing, but he didn't seem to notice. "Funny, you don't look sick." Had he heard the rumors about the miracle named Kagome Higurashi?

"My grandfather's lies will haunt me until the end of time," Kagome groaned.

Fsu grabbed his brother and sister by the hands and dragged them to the table. "Sit down now, you two. You need to get working. Even your father said so." He was obviously in professional tutoring mode at that time. His eyes still kept slipping over to Kagome and Shippou, though he was trying to get the children calmed down.

"Yeah, I heard all about the old coot from Sesshoumaru. He's been staying with me, without killing me in fact, for thirteen years. Amazing huh?" Shippou laughed and released Kagome a little. "So, how's Inuyasha doing? Last I remember, he disappeared down the well after you, but never came back through."

Kagome suddenly gasped. "I'm so sorry, Shippou! Inuyasha came to visit me and it was my birthday and apparently my father is Sesshoumaru, and then mom sealed the well, and Inuyasha couldn't get back in time because I got lost, and I didn't even get to say goodbye!"

Shippou had to do some major deciphering to figure out what she said, she'd talked so fast. On the other hand, after having kids, he'd gotten pretty good at it. "Well, I want to apologize first off. I've known Sesshoumaru was your dad, but I agree with him. I think you should see it from his view; he 

was only trying to protect you. When you first fell down the well especially, if Inuyasha had smelled him on you..." he trailed off meaningfully. Inuyasha would have jumped to conclusions far too quickly for comfort.

Shippou hugged her again and whispered low in her ear, "And I know he would never admit it, but there were nights when he stayed up late, drowning himself in a bottle of sake."

Kagome looked down at her feet, "I know," Kagome said, "but couldn't he have written to me? Explained things? I would have let him keep what happened secret from me, if only to have known my father! That's the part I hate! He lied for thirteen years when he could have told the truth!"

"But he did write to you," Shippou said. "I posted those letters myself."

"Barely. Why didn't he tell me?!" Kagome said, her voice turning slightly raw, "We could avoided so much of this! And he wrote lies! Lies about all the places he was visiting!" Kagome said her voice full of accusation.

Shippou frowned. "Because he couldn't. You've got to admit it; you're a very talkative girl. If it ever slipped out...don't be so stubborn. Plus, he did go to those places. But it doesn't take a demon very long to get from one place to another with your dad's power."

"He didn't have to tell me who he was. Just that he was from the feudal era," Kagome said, losing some of her momentum. "And after I turned fifteen. Just a little warning." Kagome said. "As it was I've had the worse birthday ever. I'm not exaggerating. And I could have used a little warning about Inuyasha. I had a crush on my uncle! Yuck! Thankfully that was settled before I found out," Kagome added, turning thoughtful before making a face, "that would have been even worse."

"Uh, yeah, we tried to warn you of that." Shippou apologized. "But it was really difficult, considering we already lived through watching you fall for him. We didn't know how or when to break it to you, you know?"

"Yeah. No kidding. And for a little revenge, I'm going to tell you something Dad definitely wouldn't want you to know. He got sucked into a romance novel with mom's spell!" she said, laughing.

Shippou snickered. "You know, I really wish that woman would give me the spell. You've heard of my company, right?" He could make a mint off of books like that.

"Um..." Kagome got a little nervous, "I've heard of you..." she trailed off.

Shippou's happy demeanor disappeared. "You've 'heard' of me? But everyone KNOWS me! King of Mischief is what the newspapers call me."

Fsu had been eavesdropping. He muttered under his breath, "I did mention he's high on his work..."

Kagome scratched her head. "You know me. I don't really keep up with the names of rich businessmen. I would have if I had known it was you." Not to mention Kagome never touched a newspaper even if her life depended on it. Maybe if it was Oden on the line, though...

That was when Kurama managed to find the park. He saw his cousin conversing with a fox demon dressed rather richly, though Kagome was a bit disheveled.

Shippou said, "I heard that Fsu. I am NOT high on my work. I'm simply... liking my job. Yes, that is a good way to put it."

Fsu snorted, and said a little more loudly, "And he loves the media attention. He pouts if he isn't mentioned in that day's newspaper."

Tsu whined, "I don't want to study no more! It's dull and boring and stupid and I'll never use this stuff anyway!" He turned to look at Kagome with pleading eyes, "Granny, don't make me study!"

Kagome coughed, and glanced at Shippou's mouth that seemed to have developed an uncontrollable twitch in its corner. She thought for a moment, and then finally figured out something to say. "I won't bring you any shrine key chains. Or show you any of the cool things I can do. Or," and she was interrupted by Tsu's protest.

Tsu cried, "But, GRANNY! It's so BORING! Can't I just not do it while you're here? Pwease?"

"Grandpa really sells a lot of those key chains; it's going to be hard to get him to part with one of them for you," Kagome said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. Of course, they weren't that popular, but the threat would hopefully work.

'Gome yanked her brother's hand. "Tsu, quiet! I don't want you to RUIN it! I want a Shikon no Tama trinket! Just read!"

Tsu realized the threat and stood straight. "Ooops! No, you have to work hard like me!" the little boy urged. "Granny, you have to work sooo hard and get us that, so I'll study!" He rushed over to the bench again.

"Now all I need to do is to make them stop calling me Granny," Kagome muttered under her breath.

Fsu's lip quirked a bit, but he smoothed it with a finger.

"I suppose," she said aloud, "if you insist."

Kurama approached them, slightly confused. 'Granny,' he wondered. 'To fox demon kids?'

A loud voice came from the other side of the street, yelling, "Shippou, if you don't get back right now the vice presidents are going to get into a fist fight!"

Shippou sighed. "The eternal tug of the marital chain." He groaned then called, "I'm coming, I'm coming!" He said to Kagome, "Come see me any time, mama." It was so weird hearing that from his very adult lips. "If you need any directions getting home, Fsu can walk you..."

"SHIPPOU!" his wife called again.

"I'm coming!" He rolled his eyes and walked back across the street, entering the building with the woman.

Kagome watched him leave then said to the kids, "I gotta get going now. You sure you are going to survive the shock of all the old tales being true, Fsu?" she asked.

Fsu looked at her with a smile. "I'll live. I've lived for nine years with this family. I'm all 'surprised out' you could say. I agree with father, though." He took her hand and bowed over it, kissing her knuckles. "A beautiful lady such as yourself should stop by -- often." Granny or not, he obviously knew he wasn't related to her physically.

Kagome looked at him suspiciously, "You don't have a cursed hand, do you?" she asked.

He chuckled and held up his hands. "No, should they be?"

Kagome looked over him. Traits such as appearance might filter out over the centuries, but you never knew. "You're being deliberately obtuse. Much like a certain monk I knew."

Fsu's brown eyes twinkled with mirth. "A monk? Never met him myself." He'd heard STORIES of him... his apparent ancestor. Thankfully the two children were considered "too young" to know of those stories though!

Kagome sighed in frustration. "I'm just going to ignore you. My brain is too tired to think right now. You go tutor children and I'll corner you later."

Fsu grinned; then pressed something into her hand. "I look forward to it." He returned to the children, once more looking professional, and as if he'd never joked in his life.

She looked at her hand. He'd pushed his cell phone into her hand. Apparently the stories of her lack of a sense of direction hadn't gone without saying.

Kagome sighed as she sat on the nearby bench. "I don't want to call them though," she muttered to herself, "I'm still mad and I don't want to hear yet another rendition of the popular tune of the past day, "What Kagome has Done Wrong," or "Kagome's Lost Yet Again." She had been teased about the last one too often to want to hear it again, let alone the first one."

Kurama approached Kagome, successfully looking like he'd just happened to be there. He made it look like he didn't recognize her at first. "Kagome?" he inquired.

Kagome's head whipped around. She looked at the male, and for the second time that day, pounced on an unsuspecting fox demon. "Shuichi! I haven't seen you in so long! Thank you for your birthday present, I loved it! How are you?"

"I'm just fine, Kagome." He said. He was sure he could hear a really strange song calling him in the back of his mind, but he ignored it. "So what are you doing this far away from the shrine? Are you feeling okay?" he put the back of his hand on her forehead. "You're flushed and warm."

He was genuinely concerned for Kagome. He remembered as a child she would beat up the people who would beat him up. At the time, he'd still been really awkward in his human body, trying to get used to it, so he was grateful for the help, but embarrassed that it had been necessary. He'd almost have rather been beaten up…

Kagome shook her head, clearing away the fog. "Long day," she muttered, "Started yesterday a little before lunch time, and hasn't stopped since."

Come to think of it, she hadn't had much to eat, either. She hadn't grabbed anything for lunch, and other than her and Inuyasha's Ramen binge, she hadn't eaten anything.

"Well," he looked around, surprised to notice he was only a few blocks from his apartment. "My apartment is nearby. Come on, I'll take you there." His apartment was where he usually stayed the night. However, the last two nights he'd stayed at his mom's house. He'd gotten an apartment closer to the school and his job, plus his mom was really weird every time a girl stopped by, and he couldn't stand that.

Needless to say he didn't need much urging to get an apartment.

"That would be great," she said gratefully. She managed a reasonable (to her, at least) impression of a human being who has had a decent breakfast and minimum of eight hours of sleep and started walking. Sadly, it wasn't in the right direction.

"Um, Kagome," Kurama chuckled, "it's this way." He pointed to the east exit of the park.

"I knew that," she muttered, and swung around. A little too quickly, actually, and she fell down. "Ow," she muttered. Twice in less than an hour? That couldn't be good.

Kurama bent down to help her up. He heard her stomach growl and said, "Kagome, when was the last time you ate? With as much as you are sick, you need proper nutrition more than the average person!" He helped her up again, flipping his bright red hair over his shoulder. His green eyes stared at her, piercingly. Indeed he had grown handsome...

"Um...recently? Yesterday afternoon at a ramen restaurant," Kagome said, embarrassed. Sometimes she could seriously injure her grandfather. Why couldn't he have just made up family emergencies or something? After all, it had been her uncle she was helping.

"No more Ramen for you, Kagome." He thought of all Keiko had told him then said, "Would you like to stay with me for a while at my apartment? I heard you had a fight with pops," Sesshoumaru was his 'pops' and Kagome knew this, "when he came back to the city."

"They called you?!" Kagome asked, embarrassed and a bit angry.

"Well, Souta called. He told me you'd run off, and I wanted to know why." Kurama smiled at her as they turned down a street that wasn't clearly in the best of neighborhoods. She could feel the presence of demons everywhere here. "Watch your step," he said, pointing to a divot in the pavement. It went down five feet--not the normal divot, obviously.

Kagome couldn't think of anything to say. Stupid sense of direction. "Interesting neighborhood," she commented, looking around, "don't you have any problems with, er, muggers or gangs or anything?" It's not like she could ask if he had to fight with demons on a regular basis.

Kurama shrugged. "You've got your normal thieves here, and your petty gangs. They've all gone into hiding though, what with that rapist on the loose. Two of his seven victims were here in this neighborhood." His features suddenly darkened. "A...friend of mine...found one of the victims."

Kagome shook her head. 'I guess Shuichi must have gotten a bit stronger,' Aloud, she said, "I'd heard about that rapist. Scary. It's a good thing Inu," and here she paused, "Never mind."

"Inu?" Kurama inquired. Keiko had mentioned someone with the name Inuyasha, and he wasn't stupid. It had to be the same person. He led her through the door to his apartment. The apartment wasn't the greatest thing on the outside, but he'd clearly fixed many things on the inside. "Who is that?"

"Er," Kagome tried to think of what to call him. Then, "Uncle Inuyasha. He doesn't watch the news much, and he is very protective of me." Kagome was ready to celebrate on the inside. She rocked! She was even telling the truth!

"Oh, really? Is Uncle back?" Why didn't he think of that sooner? He'd always heard of Uncle, but Sesshoumaru stated Inuyasha was hiding away somewhere because he was a moron. "Pops said he'd probably holed himself up in the mountains somewhere."

Kagome blinked. Oh yeah, Inuyasha was his uncle too. How to put this? "He came back on my fifteenth birthday. He's been visiting us ever since, and he's got this crazy idea that I need to train all the time to protect myself from demons and things. I think living in the mountains has turned him a bit nutty."

"Oh, really?" He smirked at her and shut the apartment door behind her. She heard the lock slide into place. "Then why have I, your dear cousin Shuichi, been living under the impression that you've been sick the last four years? None of your recent letters spoke of Uncle... One begins to think you're hiding something." A strange and mischievous look crossed his features, one that was never present in the years she'd known him.

Kagome started to imagine everything she could do to her grandfather. Stupid, stupid old man.

Kagome tried to think of what she could say, but she had gotten herself into a rather big hole. Okay. She took a deep breath and got ready from her reply, "On my fifteenth birthday I fell down the Bone Eater's Well and found myself in the feudal era and I meet Inuyasha, a half demon who ends up being my uncle but I don't find that out until last night and he's pinned to a tree by an arrow and sleeping and then this gigantic centipede demon who was the reason I was dragged," Kurama blinked. She was speaking far too fast to understand a single word unless gibberish was a real language. He would make her repeat half the things she said, "into the well in the first place comes after me yelling about the Shikon no Tama and I ran back towards the tree with Inuyasha on it and then the Shikon no Tama was bitten out of me by the centipede demon and then I almost died but I woke Inuyasha up and freed him and he saved me and then after some more things happened I broke the Shikon no Tama with an arrow trying to kill a demon who swallowed it and then I had to keep going back to the feudal era to help stick it back together."

Kagome took a huge gulp of air. She needed that. She looked cautiously over at Shuichi. Maybe he hadn't understood her and would be scared of by her hurried explanation? That was her plan, anyways.

He blinked again. "Um, okay... Well, so here's what I understand so far: You've been awake for over twenty-four hours, you're delirious, you're half-starved, and you're sicker than I could have imagined. Am I even remotely close?" He blinked again. His cousin really needed some medical attention. Good thing he was perfect for that job. He might have once been a notorious thief, but in his human body, he found that he cared for his relatives.

Kagome blinked. She hadn't even thought about working that angle. It had possibilities. She smiled, relieved. "Yup! That must be it!"

Kurama shook his head and ran a hand through his red hair. He pointed to the door leading to his bedroom at the other end of the room. "That's my bedroom. Go lay down and I'll make you something to eat."

Kagome nodded and yawned. "Thanks. I appreciate." Her eyesight started to get slightly fuzzy. "By the way, Shuichi, you shouldn't bleach your hair white. It looks weird. The puppy ears look cute though." She walked into the bedroom, ready to collapse on the bed.

Kurama looked at her with surprise and watched her head toward his roommate's room. "The other door, Kagome." he said. She knows, he thought. But no, she's just delirious. But pops is a demon, so she must know! He frowned as he reheated some soup from last night, peppering it with some powder 

that wasn't pepper or salt - or really anything you would ever find in a normal grocery store. But Gran Ai is a spiritualist... So maybe she doesn't know...

Kagome jumped slightly and turned around. "Thank you. Would you stop changing hair colors to look like Dad, though? It's giving me a headache." She turned around and went into the other bedroom, and promptly falling asleep midway through the air to the bed.

Kurama sat distractedly with the bowl at the table, knowing she was asleep already in the other room. "She knows," he breathed and absentmindedly began to eat the soup. He swallowed before remembering what he'd done to it. He rushed to the sink and made himself vomit it back up. Kurama heard the locks on the apartment door undoing themselves...

Kurama groaned into the sink. "Stupid, stupid." he muttered to himself. "I hate seeds with a double axe today." The powder healed the sick and poisoned the healthy.

Hiei, who had just arrived, looked at the rather disgusting sight of Kurama throwing up into the kitchen sink. "You're cleaning that up," he said, leaning against the table, "and what are you doing eating medicine you don't need anyways? I thought you were supposed to know these things."

"Shut up," Kurama growled. He had been distracted. Stupid mistakes. Kurama turned the faucet on and rinsed his mouth out. "It would hardly affect me, except unfortunately I have a human body these days... I hate my life." He kept his voice low, in case Kagome was in semi-consciousness. If there was one thing he had to do it was keep Pops from knowing he was Youko Kurama in disguise. She could NOT know he was a demon. She was JUST delirious. Please let her just be delirious.

"Who's here?" Hiei asked, sensing another presence.

"My," Kurama rinsed his mouth out again and spat it out, "cousin. Stay away from her. She's been ill."

"I'd hardly think any human illness would affect me. What is her name?" he asked.

Kurama started rinsing out the sink, looking pale already. He kept spitting in the sink and rinsing it again. "Don't worry about what her name is. You're staying away from her anyway." Kurama wasn't exactly sure why he was forbidding Hiei anything. Certainly the little apparition could take whatever he wanted, though if he tried to do anything that Kurama didn't like there would definitely be an unpleasant match up.

Hiei raised his eyebrows. He hadn't been planning on meeting her, since he had no interest in humans, but now Kurama had captured his interest. "I've met your mother," he mentioned, "what is the difference?"

"There is no difference!" Kurama snapped. He picked up the bowl of soup and threw it so forcefully into the sink that it shattered. "Just stay away from her!" If Kagome had any semblance of power and Koenma found out about it, would Kagome end up like Yukina? What would happen?

Hiei decided to snoop a little, and poked a little at her aura. He drew back swiftly in shock. It was Sesshoumaru's daughter! He wasn't quite sure what to do. And was Kurama crazy, picking a relation of Sesshoumaru's to inhabit? It was Sesshoumaru who wounded him so much that he had had to flee!

And how was he going to get around Kurama to train the girl?

Hiei finally decided what to say. "We have a new mission from Koenma. We have to investigate some ningen named Higurashi Kagome."

At least Kurama would have some warning that the Spirit World was interested in her, though her father's protection would probably hold.

Kurama growled and spat in the sink again. "I recommend ignoring the mission," Kurama said. "Unless you want Higurashi, Sesshoumaru on your ass. And let Koenma know that too."

"Sesshoumaru knows. I'm looking forward to hearing what happens when he goes to discuss things with Koenma." Hiei smirked.

Kurama reached into the sink and sighed. "Hiei, I neither know, nor care about this mission. I have a week left of my sentence to Koenma and then I am a free man." He grabbed one of the glass shards. "Leave the Higurashi's alone, and stay away from my cousin."

Hiei sighed. He wouldn't be able to hide his new status from Kurama forever, especially when Yukina was moved to Sesshoumaru's residence, so he might as well tell him now.

"Actually, I'll be aiding Sesshoumaru with a small task of his. He'll be granting be a small favor in return. You should consider helping him point out the holes in his security system, though you probably shouldn't mention your antics a few years back. He is still rather annoyed about that." he said. He didn't have to actually tell him that he would be training the girl, at least not yet. He had already had a long day, and was ready for a break. Dealing with the Lord Sesshoumaru was inclined to give one a headache as big as the Lord's head…er, status.

Kurama gripped the shard so tight its sharp edges sliced his fingers and palm open. "And what, pray tell, would this task be, OLD FRIEND," Kurama said in a dangerously soft voice. He turned his head and one green eye pinned Hiei with a cold stare, though Hiei definitely had a colder glare.

Hiei sighed. Kurama's protectiveness over his human relations was annoying, but he would be a hypocrite if he accused him of that aloud. "I went to warn Sesshoumaru this morning about Koenma. We have had a few dealings in the past, and he offered me a deal which involved getting Yukina away from Spirit World's control, and in the future, myself.

"They might let you off, Kurama, as you have supposedly been "reformed" but they aren't going to let go of me, no matter what they say. Sesshoumaru has requested that I train the Kagemusha. Apparently she has started to come into her powers, but hasn't had a chance to develop them yet. Her name is Higurashi, Kagome." Hiei finished. He might as well deal with Kurama's reaction now so that he wouldn't have to hear him complaining later. So much for avoiding a bigger headache…

Kurama's hand was dripping blood all over the floor. "The Kagemusha, hm? Perhaps you should take a look at _The Book of the Prophets_ before you agree to things you know nothing about, Hiei-san." The formality dripped coldly from his lips. The shard of glass in his hand was begging to splinter from the force of his grip.

"Sesshoumaru owns that book," Hiei said dryly.

"Does he?" Kurama's lips twitched. "Are you completely positive of this fact? Remember, I've been a thief since I could walk."

"I'm the one who reacquired it back after someone stole it. He wasn't that pleased. Taking that pelt, however, was what really set him off," Hiei said, "And I must say, you have some rather interesting things stashed in your little hiding spot."

"No, Hiei," Kurama said. "I stole it from his father. The REAL book. I was working in the palace, and let's just say that Prince Sesshoumaru was less than friendly. I wanted to punish him, and the opportunity arose so I took it. His father wanted him to read it, so I stole it. I replaced it with a very convincing replica. It took months to plan it, and Inutaishou was too embarrassed to admit he'd been robbed and couldn't figure out who did it so he lied about the book and said it wiped itself blank. He died before he could find it, and I still have it. It's here, in fact. In this apartment."

"Sesshoumaru's father told him the prophecy, and it involved the Kagemusha having to save two worlds and two times. She has already apparently saved one," Hiei said. If Kurama protested anymore, then he would just let him live in his delusional little world and let him find out later.

The only reason he was trying this much was that Kurama was a good acquaintance. Besides, he had found both copies. He had been able to sense that the first one he found didn't have enough power, and had gone on to find the other one. He had found it just as Kurama had been almost killed, so he hadn't discovered that it was missing yet.

Kurama walked right over to the bookshelf in the living room. He pulled a perfectly ordinary book bound in tattered brown leather from the shelf. He tossed the insanely ordinary book at Hiei and it landed on the table. It was untitled, and had no author. "I know what you're thinking; the book must have power. But your Jagan doesn't pay attention to things without an aura."

Hiei frowned, annoyed. "You're missing the point. Sesshoumaru did have the true prophecy given through word of mouth, if not through the written word. Kagome has already supposedly saved the past, as a time-traveler. Why are you so concerned about this girl anyways?" Hiei knew that, but he wanted Kurama to admit it. His right arm twinged. He wasn't the only one getting annoyed.

Kurama once more crossed the room in a fury. "Think about it, Hiei. Word of mouth isn't always accurate, and sometimes things are left out purposefully." He flipped through the book and stopped, showing him a page which read, "The Kagemusha will complete her task, but her wounds will be too fatal."

He flipped through again and showed another page, "The Kagemusha will kill and be killed by her enemy." Once more he flipped through and showed the page, "The Kagemusha will die before she can complete her task and the worlds will split in two."

Kurama growled, "Do you see? This accounts for all the Kagemusha. I will do whatever I can to prevent this, because she's my cousin."

"Look," Hiei said, "whether or not she is your cousin, she was the miko who defeated Naraku in the past. She still has the Shikon no Tama, so she will be attacked once it is discovered that the jewel has resurfaced in this time. She might be the Kagemusha, and she might not, but either way she needs to be able to defend herself better. She has already been in danger without you, and if you wish to aid in her protection, then you should help and not hinder me. Otherwise, she might be killed. Just because only 'safe' demons are supposed to live here, you know as well as I do who has made it here, and know who would seek to possess the jewel."

Kurama glared at Hiei. Then he said, "If she wishes to learn by you, fine." In other words, if Hiei tried to force Kagome to learn to fight simply because Yukina would be freed from the Spirit World, there would be repercussions. "If she agrees..." Quite clearly, he deflated. He was seeing the logic in what Hiei said. "Well, don't kill her. Okay?" He took the book up and put it under his arm.

"I thought, since she was your relation, you would wish to train her," Hiei said, looking away uncomfortably.

Kurama frowned. "Embarrassing as it is to admit, I don't think that would work. To top off working two jobs and the Spirit World, and college, and taking care of my mother, I don't want to beat up on my cousin. Not only that, but I must admit if that rabid fan club of mine sees her with me, they might do murder."

Kurama looked at Hiei. "But thank you. Yukina would be grateful as well, I'm sure. Though when you're around Kagome, you must refer to me as Shuichi, or I might...uh, slip... when I'm around Yukina and, accidentally on purpose refer to you as 'Yukina's long lost brother'."

"You aren't going to tell her?" Hiei asked.

"She has always loved to chat, and I feel it is safer that the fact does not get back to Sesshoumaru since I'm not giving his pelt back any time soon, and I don't want to find out if he'd be willing to kill his grandkid."

Hiei's lips twitched. "You aren't going to tell her because a flea-ridden, dog pelt?"

Kurama began picking shattered glass from his hand. "It is more the fact that I will be stealing something precious to Sesshoumaru very soon, and I do not want my situation compromised. I don't need his eyes watching me every step of the way." He smiled ironically, "And try not to run off and tattle. It's just not like you." He was referring to Hiei telling Sesshoumaru about Kagome being investigated. It really did seem strange considering Hiei's persona, but he clearly had his reasons.

"Sesshoumaru is an acquaintance of mine. Koenma is not," Hiei said, shrugging.

"And am I? Will you betray my trust?" Kurama was thoughtful, almost grinning, but he winced each time he pulled out a piece of glass.

"However, that doesn't mean I won't be interested in watching Sesshoumaru being embarrassed yet again. What better way to announce to the general public that Youko has not gone soft," Hiei said, guessing at Youko's reasons for stealing from Sesshoumaru.

"Soon as I'm free of Koenma, I can pull it off. Koenma can punish me only if I am in his employ. Otherwise if I am not, it is Sesshoumaru's jurisdiction, and he'll have to try finding me. I have been planning this for two years." Kurama's eyes narrowed, "And then we'll see if I can outsmart him even as a human. God I hate him."

"Isn't he your 'uncle'?" Hiei asked. "And you're sure that he doesn't know who you are?" Hiei asked.

"Unless he was at the Demon Tournament, he wouldn't know. And no, he's technically my grandfather in a removed fashion. He took in a ward five hundred years ago." Kurama paused visibly in his movements. He'd created a spark of doubt in his own mind. "Shit. What if he was there?"

Hiei grinned. "So technically, Kagome is your aunt."

"I don't care about genealogy." Kurama mumbled distractedly. "This is quite a problem..."

"If he knows, he hasn't killed you yet. And if he doesn't, you don't have a problem in the first place," Hiei said.

"Finding out if he was at the Tournament won't be a problem." Kurama chuckled. "I'll just ask Koenma." Already Hiei and Kurama had spent two hours talking to each other, or half-arguing at any rate.

"Who's Koenma?" asked a sleepy voice as the owner stumbled into the kitchen space. "And who was at what tournament?" She absentmindedly scratched her leg. "I hope you don't mind, Shu-kun. I borrowed your shirt."

And indeed, she was wearing one of his button up shirts. Either she was lazy and didn't button it entirely, or she left it unbuttoned like that on purpose, but it was clear she didn't have much but undergarments under that.

But before Kurama or Hiei could say anything, Kagome stuck her nose up in the air. "I smell Oden! I know you're hiding it somewhere!" She went right past Kurama and Hiei and straight for the fridge, rummaging around for her prize.

Kagome's keen nose fished out the oden in less time than it took to say "the" and she hugged the dish. "It's been AGES since I've had oden!"

Hiei mouthed, "SHU-KUN, that's MY oden." He looked annoyed. Really, what had he gotten himself into?

He was supposed to train this girl? True, now that he saw her in person, he could feel the potential in her aura. It even made his Jagan hum with anticipation to see how far he could push her.

Kagome hugged the Oden to her protectively. "You aren't getting it, Oden demon!"

Kurama hid his injured hand under the table. "Perhaps getting dressed would be a good idea."

"This shirt is as long as my high school uniform skirt. I don't see a problem with its length." Kagome grinned and started rummaging around for silverware. "Are you uncomfortable around me, Shu-kun? You invited me here, remember?" She had come to the sink.

Blood, she thought, looking in the sink. Someone was bleeding. That was not just red food coloring on shattered glass.

"That better be your blood, Oden demon," Kagome said, "Or you are in trouble. And not just for threatening to take my Oden!" she added.

Hiei said, "Actually, your nephew here got pissed off and injured his hand." He leaned against the table. "And what makes the Oden yours? I cooked it."

Kurama muttered to Hiei, "Two pieces of advice: don't hurt people she considers a friend or a relative, and don't get between her and Oden."

"Because all Oden in the world is mine," Kagome said, "unless I decide to share it."

However, she put the container of soup down, and went over to Shuichi's still open cupboard in which he kept his supplies and grabbing some bandaging and one of the few herbs she could recognize all too well. "Give me your hand," she ordered Shuichi sternly.

Hiei smirked. Now he had an idea how to get her to train willingly. He watched her with keen eyes.

Kurama gave her his hand. He was still picking glass out of it.

"And you call me clumsy," Kagome said, and grabbing tweezers, started picking shards of glass out of Shuichi's hand. She was pretty deft with dealing with his wound, and soon had it wrapped up, and turned around triumphantly only to discover that her Oden was missing.

Hiei smirked, holding the bowl in his hands. "I did say it was mine." He whistled innocently and set the now empty bowl in the sink. "Hm, I could go for more."

Kagome huffed. "Who are you anyways? And what is a demon doing in my cousin's apartment, which he is my cousin, not my nephew. And I already told you, all Oden is mine, unless it is badly made." Kagome suddenly made a noise of understanding. "I get it. You suck at cooking and didn't want me to discover that you had made the Oden-hime bad Oden. I forgive you then."

Kurama didn't help much. "Actually, Kagome, his Oden is even better than Gran Ai's." He only realized it might not have been good for Hiei's safety to mention that AFTER he'd mentioned it.

Hiei lifted himself so he was seated on the cupboard top. "My name is Hiei, and I live here." He said simply.

"You really are an Oden demon then, because only an Oden demon can make better Oden than mom, and since mom must be the one to make the best Oden in the world, I'm afraid I'll have to either purify you or have you prove that your Oden is better." Kagome said.

Hiei found himself strangely lacking in the 'fear' department, as he was hardly intimidated. "You are much like your father." He stated. "He likes to hear himself talk too." He entered her mind with the Jagan and spoke to her. _Should you try purifying me, I will turn that power on your cousin. You are too untrained to stop me, and if you woke up enough, you might see this as well. Though from the way your mind speaks, it seems you have slept only two of twenty-eight hours._

Of course, Hiei was bluffing, but she didn't have to know that.

Kagome huffed. "So I haven't had that much sleep! Why does everyone keep harping on that?"

"Because you look like hell?" Hiei offered bluntly, clearly not caring that his cruel words might hurt her feelings.

She didn't seem to notice he'd spoken at all. "And I'm surprised you guessed who I was imitating. I guess I need a little more work on my acting. I'm still trying to figure out what I got from him. I know I didn't get hair that obeys, that's for sure."

Kurama muttered, "Those three white hairs on the back of your head look striking enough," but he spoke low enough that only Hiei would hear. Hiei looked like he wanted to laugh at it and his eyes sparkled with humor, but he bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. Humans really were funny.

Kagome shrugged, "Very well, I'll have some Ramen," Kagome said. She started looking through the cabinets, forgetting that she had already been lectured on her eating habits.

"No, Kagome." Kurama said. "If I recall, I told you no more of that. Beside that, neither of us likes Ramen so you won't find any here." He then noticed the shirt hem, "Kagome, don't lift your arms like that."

Kagome jumped up, pulling her shirt hem down. "Drat it, why aren't you taller, Shuichi? What is edible around here?"

Hiei said, "Well, for a fee I might be persuaded to cook something." He had trouble keeping from grinning broadly. There was something fun about antagonizing exhausted, starved people.

"I don't want to wait! Do you have any fruit? I can have breakfast at lunch, can't I, Shuichi?!" Kagome begged, looking at Kurama with pleading eyes.

Kurama leaned back in his chair at the table. "Kagome, what you need is rest right now."

Hiei smirked and felt like adding fuel to a fire in the slight debate. "But if she does not eat, perhaps she'll die of hunger in her sleep. You would not wish that upon your aunt, would you?"

Kagome turned to argue about the cousin/aunt thing, then stopped. "Wait a moment...you can't be Inuyasha's son! How are you related to me?!" she said, distracted from the food argument.

She had apparently forgotten Sesshoumaru's explanation of the relation to the Minamino family. Shuichi and his mother were descendants of Rin, Sesshoumaru's ward, and so not exactly a direct 

relation. Kurama didn't exactly know how to respond to that, so he didn't. "Kagome, please just return to your bed. You need rest."

Kagome pouted. "Fine," she mumbled, and went to her bedroom.

Kurama thought things were going too easily until he sensed a barrier spring up, one that apparently was intended to work against both humans and demons.

"What the hell?" Hiei hissed and his hands went to his Jagan. Blood soaked the bandana, as if he'd been attacked. He even crumpled off his current seat on the countertop in his shock.

Kagome threw herself onto the bed, but immediately regretted it as the bruises Souta had given her in the fight began to smart. Still, she yawned and looked at the pink barrier swirling just a few inches in front of each wall in the room. "It's not fair," she muttered. "It doesn't ever look like anyone else cares of my well-being at home, so why should he?" She was talking about Kurama, of course.

She placed her hand on the Shikon no Tama around her neck, the jewel still invisible. She was surprised when touching the thing brought her comfort. It never did that before, almost like she had warm arms embracing her body.

Out side, Kurama was hovering over Hiei, warring instincts of healer and knowing that Hiei wouldn't want help conflicting. "What is wrong, Hiei?" he asked, not quite sure why her barrier was affecting his Jagan.

"Stupid witch," Hiei growled and leaned on the cupboard. "She's put a barrier on my Jagan so I can't enter her mind." He paused and glared at Kurama with two crimson eyes, still holding the bloody bandana. "Kurama, someone's training her in the Dark Arts, or she's training herself. No ordinary miko can do spells like this. I can't even exit my mind."

He pulled the bandana off and it looked like tears of blood were coming from the Jagan. It had hurt at first, like a stabbing feeling, but now his head just felt empty, and echoing.

"Were you invading her mind?" Kurama asked, figuring he would deal with the other questions later.

"I poked in a bit." Hiei admitted reluctantly. "But right now her mind is more like a landfill. She's got clutter everywhere. Unless it's normally like that." Hiei didn't look too happy about that little barrier on his mind.

"I thought I told you to leave her alone," Kurama said, greenish-gold eyes narrowing.

"You should know by now: I don't obey orders very well." Hiei snapped and stood up. He took a dish towel from a drawer and wiped the blood from his face, though the effort seemed useless since his eye kept bleeding.

Kurama sighed. He would be angrier, but he wasn't sure if Hiei could even keep the Jagan from sweeping the surface thoughts of the people around him. It would explain why he had been more irritable than normal at the Tournament. And now, for the first time since he had it implanted into him, it must be quite odd. And apparently Kagome had taken her revenge anyways.

"Damn broad." Hiei growled. "I'd relish wringing her neck," he hadn't actually meant to say that aloud, but apparently the barrier prevented another thing: keeping his thoughts to himself.

Kurama opened his mouth to say something; then closed it again. It was Hiei. And he hadn't gotten to know Kagome yet. He would be having many more of those urges soon. Even he had the urge sometimes. She could be quite annoying even when she was only communicating through letters.

Hiei wiped the blood from his face again before walking over to Kurama's bedroom door. He pounded on the surface of it. "Wench, remove this barrier or else!"

Inside the room, you could almost hear a non existent cricket chirp. The barrier cut off sound as well. It almost prevented Kagome's quiet snores from reaching the males.

Hiei groaned. "For the first time in my life, I believe I will regret something." Why, WHY, did he have to agree to train her? And in that agreement, was there any fine print where she had to remain alive?

"For the first time? How about when you decided to try and fight Yusuke? Or trying to steal the three treasures? Or," but Kurama was cut off.

"Why don't you just shut it?" Hiei snapped. He pounded on the door again. "Damn infernal woman, wake your ass up and remove this barrier!"

Kurama wondered if he should tell Hiei that it was probably sound-proofed. He decided to go for a walk. Let him figure it out.

When Kurama left, he made his way to the shrine. He still had a visit to make, and while he was there he figured he would inquire of his Auntie to have Kagome stay over for a few days. If anything, it would get Keiko to stop riding his back about the Kagome-in-trouble issue. But he mulled on the power she had shown, and what Hiei had said. Could Kagome have really used the Dark Arts of the Miko?

If so, who could she have learned it from?

Hiei glared at the door and tried the handle. In a strange stroke of luck, she hadn't locked it, though locks were easy to pick. The door swung open, passing through a strange, fading pink light. The pink light he recognized as pure miko magic, but like in all untrained priestesses, the spell slowly faded as she slept.

That was why it was so odd that he couldn't feel the barrier on his mind going away even though she slept peacefully. He reached out tentatively and felt like his hand passed through nothing more than jello, and he did not feel pained. A smirk crossed Hiei's features and he looked at the door Kurama left out of, as if to be sure he had gone.

Then, he stepped through the barrier and looked back at the sleeping princess on the bed. She hadn't covered up and had obviously not lain down with any care for whether or not the shirt rode up. He could see her undergarments. "He he..." he said, though normally he would have just thought that.

"Do not underestimate me again, girl," he said as he crossed the room. He looked down at her, flexed his fingers, and said, "Training starts...now."

Kagome turned over, emitting another light snore in response to Hiei's comment.

Hiei reached down, clawed fingers closing around her neck, gently at first. Then, he began to apply pressure. "Let's see your reaction time." He began counting. The counts were supposed to be in his head but he ended up thinking aloud because of the barrier. "One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand..."

Kagome mumbled in her sleep. "Go 'way, Myouga. I'm not a blood bank."

Hiei applied more pressure to her neck, cutting off her air supply and continued counting. "Nine-one-thousand, oblivious, ten-one-thousand, girl."

Kagome remained still, but suddenly, in his head, Hiei heard a rather loud shout of, "I'm not taking off the barrier! Go away!"

Though surprised at her ability to invade his mind like no other, he didn't relieve the pressure. Sooner or later she would need air. He said, "Unfortunately I am bound by verbal contract not to go away."

It retaliation to his remark, Kagome's body suddenly glowed pink and purification energy ran through Hiei's fingers, which were turning red quickly.

Hiei rose to the challenge and leaned close to her. "Open your eyes, woman. You will be sufficiently surprised." He put his hand a few inches from her face so she could see his palm. Though it was red and blistered, it was healing at a remarkable speed.

The instant Hiei let go of her neck to prove he wasn't that injured, Kagome was away. She had slithered off, and was out the door, closing it behind her and setting a barrier around the room. Sadly, as before, the barrier didn't keep him in for long.

Hiei didn't wait this time for the barrier to fade, even though he knew it would. She was too exhausted to maintain a barrier, especially one encompassing the entirety of Hiei and Kurama's living room and kitchen area. He opened the door and put his hand against the barrier. "You're too weak. Your father has too much hope for you."

He shoved against the barrier and it first began to splinter, then it broke apart. He was instantly beside her, a frown on his face as he took away her escape by grabbing her wrists and pushing them 

against the counter they were standing by. By grabbing the clothing she wore and keeping it between their skin, she would be unable to do damage to him while in her current state.

"If this is about the Oden, I'm sorry I insulted it. I'm sure it was very good," Kagome said, "or are you just homicidal?"

Hiei's frown deepened. "This has nothing to do with food. In an agreement with your mutt-brained father, I am to train you; I take it you know what this training will entail?"

Kagome's eyes almost seemed to turn red. "Train, train, train! I'm never going to get away from training! I hate being abnormal! And my father can't help that he has a mutt brain! He's a dog! Jeesh, this is the day from hell! Which god did I piss off this time?"

"Shut your mouth and listen to me." Hiei said in a low voice. "You pissed no god off as far as I am aware, and I am not doing this for you. I'm doing this for someone else. So let me get one thing perfectly clear; you will remove this barrier, or I will kill you and it will eventually fade. Either way works for me." His crimson eyes were shining with contained rage, but he never raised his voice.

"Er," Kagome chuckled in a nervous fashion, "Give me a moment. I'm trying to remember how to take it off and you're distracting me!"

Hiei let up only slightly. "With proper training," he thought aloud, the barrier still there, "she might be a threat..." He didn't realize he'd talked aloud.

"Thanks," Kagome said, "Now hush." Kagome started to mumble aloud. "It was the, nope, that was the subduing spell. The, er, no, Kikyou would kill me if she knew I used that spell. Oh, I know!"

Kagome wrestled her arms away from Hiei, held up her hands, and made a few gestures that Hiei didn't recognize, then mumbled a few words quietly to herself. The barrier surrounding Hiei's head dropped, but for some reason, his hair did too.

"Whoops," Kagome mumbled, "I didn't mean to do that."

Hiei fell back a step as his mind was instantly bombarded with the surface thoughts of people within a fifty-foot radius of him. He didn't care so much that his hair had fallen, but his third eye began bleeding once more. When it had stopped, he wasn't sure. At first, it was a painful gutting feeling when the barrier lifted, but then it only bled. His hands went to his Jagan, but blood pushed out from between his fingers.

"Do not touch the Dark Arts again until I say you can." he grimaced. "Am I understood?" So he wasn't forbidding her, but he wasn't exactly giving her a pat on the back for it either.

Kagome released a small gasp of surprise. "I get it! That eye is an implant, not a natural one." And before Hiei could say a word, Kagome quickly ran through a slightly different set of gestures and mumbled words.

Hiei said, "No more Dark magic, wench," but it seemed too late. She had already cast her spell.

The bleeding from his Jagan stopped, and for once Hiei wasn't having to fight with it to keep it in control.

Hiei glared at Kagome with an incredulous look on his face. "Did I not just say not to use the Dark Arts until I give you permission?" he walked over to the sink and vigorously scrubbed his face off with water. "Unless you wish me to add 'uses the Dark Arts' in my report to your father when I see him."

He dried off on a towel. He wouldn't admit he was grateful for the spell, but he was sure that once she fell asleep it would fade away, so he didn't want to get used to it. He looked at her again. "The Dark Arts of the Miko are not only extremely dangerous to the victims of it, but also to the user."

Kagome nodded agreement, but only because she was worried about her mother, not her father. If her mother found out...she shivered. Bad things would happen.

"And I know that! Kikyou told me a lot about the Dark Arts, so I would know how to recognize them," she neglected to mention all of her other experiments with them. It wasn't that she was trying to disobey; she just didn't understand why some of the spells shouldn't be used. They could help with fighting and things. She remembered one that even Keade had resorted to using. The subjugation 

spell was dark, and it was really useful. Then she remembered she removed it, in anticipation of Inuyasha going back to the feudal era. Darn it!

"Did this Kikyou also mention that spells cast by an exhausted miko has a seventy-five percent chance of rebounding off the intended target and amplifying the damage on the user, or did she leave that part out?" Really, Hiei seemed to know a lot about this. He also looked a little bitter, and a spark of something unidentifiable crossed his eyes.

"Actually, it depends on how strong the miko is. The more powerful she is, the more likely it is to rebound. How do you know so much about it anyways?" she grumbled. Weren't things like trademark secrets supposed to be kept, well, secret?

"Let's just say an acquaintance of mine killed herself that way." Hiei drawled. "And leave it at that." He turned and began shifting through the cupboards. In mere seconds he had bread and other sandwich ingredients lain out on the counter. "According to the laws governing miko in the underworld now, the Dark Arts are never to be mentioned, even to explain what not to do. How did you come to be so knowledgeable?"

By the time he was done talking, he was setting a plate with two sandwiches on the table, and he then went in the fridge for milk. "Eat, woman. You're useless to my contract if you starve to death."

Kagome visibly brightened. She hadn't told Shuichi, but the lack of food had been making her feel dizzy. "Thank you! And didn't dad tell you? I was traveling to the past to reconstruct the Shikon no Tama. Five hundred years ago there wasn't even an underworld, let alone those kinds of rules. Miko were expected to learn both so that they know what to watch for. My incarnate taught me a lot!"

"Great..." Hiei drawled as he set a glass of milk in front of her. He sounded very dry indeed. "Yes, King Mutt told me about that traveling thing. That doesn't explain why you're using the Dark Arts though, unless you're like me and enjoy a good day filled with mayhem and disaster."

"Dark arts aren't all dark. Some of them are very useful. I just need to avoid things like stealing souls and becoming a clay doll and things. Just because something is dark doesn't mean it's bad," Kagome said, then took an enormous bite from the sandwich. Her eyes closed and she smiled as she chewed. "This is great! You really are a good cook! Where did you learn to make things like this?"

Hiei sat on the other side of the table from her. He looked a little more than bitter. "I've lived long enough to desire more than just overcooked meat. Just don't ask what kind of meat you're eating." He knew that would get her curiosity, but he still said it. "I suppose I cannot force you to train with me, however if you decide not to, I will kill you because you will be harming the future of the person I contracted as a trade to training you. Should you agree to train, I will teach you to harness every aspect of your power, including controlling it while in a state of unconsciousness."

Kagome raised her eyebrow, unconsciously mimicking her father. "That isn't forcing me? It wasn't like I said I wasn't going to anyways. I know I need to, I just don't like that I need to."

"No," Hiei smirked and looked at his clawed hand, cracking each of the knuckles with a simple clenching. "You have an option here, see? Death or training. So it's not forcing, because you can choose. Do not jeopardize the person I am doing this for and you remain relatively whole." He pointed to the other sandwich. "Eat that. And drink your milk. It's good for you."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "I said I wasn't planning on arguing. About the training or the finishing the other sandwich. I thought it was for you."

"I am not in need of food at this current moment in time. What I need I cannot have." 'Damn Koenma's been watching me like a hawk and killing demons and humans alike is near impossible without him finding out...' he thought irritably. At least he wasn't thinking aloud anymore.

Kagome scrunched her nose as she swallowed. "You don't eat raw lesser demon meat like Kouga does? Gross!"

He rolled his eyes. "Good thing you didn't ask what type of meat you're eating..." he muttered. "It's cooked, but still the meat of a pathetic wolf demon."

Kagome choked, gagged, and spit out her current bit of sandwich. Her complexion turned rather pale and she fled to the bathroom and started throwing up as thoughts of Ginta and Hakkaku flew through 

her head. The whole wolf demon tribe had been so nice to her, other then the initial meeting, and she hadn't eaten some of them, had she?!

She heaved until there was nothing left in her stomach and slumped to cool tile floor. Her eyes slowly closed, and soon she was dreaming rather disturbing dream of her wolf friends yelling at her.

Hiei stood and walked to the bathroom, leaning on the door. "So what makes you tick, Princess?" he smiled sinisterly at her sleeping form. "Obvious." He closed the bathroom door. "Too bad she wasted good meat."

-NEXT DAY-

Kagome looked between Hiei and Shuichi. She was definitely on Shuichi's side on this one. "He let me eat demon meat, wolf meat! I was friends with wolf demons! I had to throw it all up again!"

Kurama raised an eyebrow at Kagome and smiled. "Demons, Kagome?" he asked her, inclined more toward making her believe he knew nothing of demons. If he did, it would compromise his hiding in Shuichi's body. "Kagome, are you ill?"

Hiei set plates of food on the table. They were light salads with strips of meat on top like a chicken ceasar salad, only the meat looked strange.

"One, I'm so not eating that," Kagome said, pointing at the salad, "And two, I know you know because you must have noticed it when Hiei's forehead started bleeding, you are living with a demon who would not subject himself to living with a human that didn't know, and finally," Kagome reached over and whipped of Hiei's head band, "You don't seem that surprised by this," and Kagome poked Hiei's third eye and Hiei gave an undignified yelp, "or this." Hiei's third eye was watering fiercely.

Kurama couldn't help chuckling at the look on Hiei's face.

"Damn it, Kurama, she's your damn relative." Hiei glared at Kurama, obviously forgetting the whole 'call me Shuichi' rule.

Kagome looked at Hiei, then at Shuichi. "Kurama? That's a weird nickname. It fits you though. I shall now call you Kurama instead of Shuichi!"

"No, Kagome, you can't." Kurama insisted. He glared at Hiei for the slip, but Hiei didn't look like he cared all that much. "Hiei, I told you what would happen if you slipped!" He hissed.

"It's just a nickname. How about Rama? Kura? Why can't I call you by a nickname? Don't you love me?" and Kagome gave the best version of puppy dog eyes Kurama or Hiei had ever seen. Considering her genes, that wasn't surprising, but it wasn't helping Kurama to try and be firm.

Kurama sighed and gave her a weak smile. "But you have a nickname for me. You gave it to me in kindergarten." 'God, I hate that nickname... Shu-kun...' he thought.

Hiei didn't help Kurama's situation much, since he liked to be the cause of discord. "You don't like to be called Shu-kun though."

Kagome pouted. Then she brightened. "Shu-chan!" she announced.

Kurama looked devastated and gave Hiei a look that said clearly, 'Look what you've done, you monster!' "Shu-chan it..." his voice cracked, "is then..."

Kagome's mouth dropped. "I was kidding, Shuichi! I'm not that mean! If you don't want me to call you Kurama, I won't. Or Shu-kun or Shu-chan. I just demand that Hiei doesn't get to either, 'cause I'm your relative and he shouldn't call you things you don't like!"

"I don't obey orders," Hiei stated, but Kurama smacked his balled up fist on the table top.

"Hiei, unless you want me to deliver that information," he said, all signs of the perfect cousin she used to know gone now, "to her on your whereabouts, I recommend you do not slip up again."

"Your cousin poked me in the eye," Hiei grumbled, rubbing his third eye which continued to throb. Why did that damn woman keep going for the Jagan anyways?

"Technically it wasn't your eye since it was an implant," Kagome stated in an undertone not really meant to be heard. She shoved the salad away. "I'm not eating that."

"And who's her anyways?" Kagome continued, "An old girl friend? What did you do, leave her for someone else?" It seemed to be normal for demons. Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's father did it; Kouga promised himself to Ayame the wolf-demon and then fell head over heels for Kagome… She would probably have more examples but at the moment they failed to come to mind.

Kurama speared some food on his fork. "Kagome, don't let Hiei get to you about the food. It's not demon meat." Hiei opened his mouth to point out that Kurama was lying, but remembered her vomiting session yesterday and decided to keep his mouth shut. If she died of starvation, Yukina would lose for it.

Instead, Hiei said, "She is not your concern, so you need not know who she is."

Kagome looked at the salad, and quickly speared all of the meat off and put it on a napkin. "It's not that I don't trust you, Shuichi, but I'm not taking any chances. Not unless I've done the shopping and know which meat is which."

Kurama said, "That brings up another point, Kagome. I've talked to Gran Ai and pops, and they said it would be acceptable if you stayed with me for a while."

"Where?" Hiei asked, disgruntled. Did he even get a choice?

End Chapter Eight

Eh…that was a bit sudden, I know, but that's where TK ended it, so ok! Anyways, hope you enjoyed, and looking forward to any reviews you might send! Bye!


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